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Bodegas Mengoba

Mountain Juice: Delicious, New-Gen Spain at Old-Gen Prices…
Bodegas Mengoba

Alice Feiring’s colourful quote above was penned towards the start of Grégory Pérez’s Bierzo adventure. We’re now two decades into his Mengoba project and can edit that acclaim to say, as well as a flipping talented winegrower. A Bordeaux native with Spanish heritage, Pérez launched his career with Grand-Puy-Lacoste and worked at Cos d’Estournel before travelling to Bierzo in 2001. Initially expecting to perform a single harvest with his friend Eduardo García, today, Pérez is one of the leading lights of this remote mountainous region of northwest Spain—and perhaps its most daredevil.


By all accounts, 2023 is Bierzo’s finest vintage in a decade, and one of the finest since the region’s modern-day Mencía pioneers—Álvaro Palacios and the Pérez namesakes, Ricardo, Raul and Grégory— arrived a quarter of a century ago. The Mencía wines from these highlands harness more body than their Atlantic-influenced cousins on the opposite side of the Cantabrian mountains and Galician Massif. Even so, the 2023 vintage has shaped delicious wines of surprising elegance, perfume and supple texture.


One grower we spoke to yearned that 2023 could be Bierzo’s answer to Beaujolais’ 2009 vintage, referring to the year that relaunched Cru Beaujolais to the modern palate. Perhaps he had been drinking too much of his own wares at the time; one can become hopeful in a bar, after hours. But we get the point. The best wines of Bierzo deserve more limelight than the congested global market currently grants them. Pound for pound, the region represents some of the best value coming out of Europe. Indeed, visiting Pérez and his isolated hillside vineyards, where everything is done by hand and tractor, it seems like a minor miracle that he can produce such quality at a similar price to mechanised Beaujolais plonk. Or the cost of a few pints of beer, for that matter.

 

Even if the 2023 vintage does not launch his Mencía onto the great wine lists, perhaps our optimistic friend above might console himself that Bierzo has what Beaujolais does not: great white wines. Bierzo’s Godello-based wines have long been an insider’s secret. Given that five per cent of Bierzo’s vineyards are planted to white grapes, that isn’t going to change any time soon. Yet, few wine regions in Europe can create such brilliant and identifiable whites: imagine a quality, punchy Chardonnay flecked with meadow flowers and mineral depth from old, hand-tended vines—at an affordable price.

The Wines

Mengoba Bierzo Brezo Blanco 2023

Mengoba Bierzo Brezo Blanco 2023

One of the best-value wines in our portfolio, Mengoba’s entry-level white is a blend of 90% Godello and 10% Doña Blanca sourced from a range of Bierzo’s highland vineyards. The Godello is drawn mainly from a stony Carracedo site, as well as from some sandy loam and clay/limestone plots in Valtuille and Villafranca del Bierzo. The Doña Blanca hails from similar sites and includes some older gobelet material from the slate soils of Espanillo. The age of the vines sits between 20 and 80 years, and all the fruit is harvested by hand, which is remarkable when you consider the price. The wine fermented with native yeasts and was raised on its fine lees in tank and large cask for six months. 

Gregory Pérez’s white wines have never tasted as pure and energetic as they do today. The new release is a superbly tangy wine offering an array of pulpy citrus, wet stone and spearmint flavour and finishing with a juicy, mineral quality. It’s a cracking bargain from some of Spain’s most spectacular vineyards.

“I tasted a very young bottle of the white 2023 Brezo Godello, which also contains 10% Doña Blanca, all from small plots in different villages. It fermented in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts and was kept with the lees until bottling. It's varietal, medicinal, balsamic and a little reductive, with notes of white fruit and bay leaf. It has ripeness and freshness and comes through as balanced, fruit-driven and easy to drink.”
92+ points, Luis Gutiérrez, The Wine Advocate
Mengoba Bierzo Brezo Blanco 2023
Mengoba Bierzo Brezo Mencía 2023

Mengoba Bierzo Brezo Mencía 2023

Gregorio Pérez’s entry-level Mencía comes from multiple remote parcels of 30- to 60-year-old vines dotted around the slate-rich hillsides of Valtuille and Villafranca del Bierzo. The blend also takes in a splash of Godello and Garnacha Tintorera (Alicante Bouschet)—a legacy of the traditional make-up of Bierzo’s vineyards. Pérez destemmed 80% of his fruit to pursue something pure, refreshing and juicy, and the wine fermented spontaneously in stainless-steel tanks. Bottled early to capture all that joyous, mouthwatering Mencía character, this is an excellent port of call if you fancy a detour from Cru Beaujolais or Loire Cabernet Franc.

Pérez's 2023 release has everything we look for in a wine from the easy-drinking leagues: authenticity, refreshment and fun, with a large side order of place. Putting the value to one side, the great achievement here is that the striking fleshiness of fruit is finely offset by the bright, fresh structure—a balance reflective of the altitude and the diurnal contrast (warm days followed by cold nights). A real charmer.

“The very young and fruit-driven red 2023 Brezo Mencía is elegant and fine-boned. It contains some 5% Garnacha Tintorera and up to 10% white grapes that give it agility and freshness. This is juicy, primary and tender, expressive, clean and balanced, with a nice mixture of wild berries and herbs, licorice and a fine thread in the palate. It's serious but approachable. It has complexity and balance. This is a superb unoaked Bierzo red.”
93 points, Luis Gutiérrez, The Wine Advocate
Mengoba Bierzo Brezo Mencía 2023

“Most wine drinkers, I suspect, have never heard of Bierzo, but word is getting around. And if you get the opportunity to taste a good bottle, with its haunting, exotic wildflower, licorice and fruit flavors, you can't help but remember it.” Eric Asimov, The New York Times

“Gregory Pérez is one f@#$ing talented winemaker...”
Alice Feiring, The Feiring Line

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