Mencía

Mencía is a red wine grape native to the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula, the signature variety of Spain's Bierzo and Ribeira Sacra and, under the name Jaen, a mainstay of Portugal's Dão. Grown largely on steep slate and granite hillsides in cool, Atlantic-influenced country, it gives fresh, fragrant, medium-bodied reds built around bright red fruit, violet florals and a stony, mineral edge. For much of the twentieth century it was bottled as a light, pale wine for early drinking, but since the 1990s a new generation of growers working old hillside vines has drawn deeper, more structured and age-worthy wine from it. The result is one of Spain's most distinctive reds — perfumed, mineral and refreshing rather than heavy.