Algueira Mencía Pizarra 2017

Another wine from Algueira released into the market with some age, this is 100% Mencía grown on slate (as the name suggests!). This stony character dominates the wine with intense minerality and underlying flintiness. It is fermented in barrel and aged for 12 months in French foudres which brings a touch of balsamic but otherwise is beautifully integrated with the wine. Plum, red pepper spice and a little orange peel on the finish speak to a mature Mencía with a real sense of place.

There is very high ripeness and some heady aromas in the 2017 Pizarra along with abundant dusty tannins that remind me of the profile of the wines from the turn of the century, with more extraction and tannins. 6,500 bottles produced. It was bottled in August 2019.