Region: Valdeorras, Spain

Varietal: 100% Mencia

Tasting notes:  Vibrant ruby color. Fresh red/blue fruits, incense and pot-pourri on the perfumed nose, with suggestions of exotic spices, smoky minerals and licorice building as the wine opens up. Offers energetic raspberry, boysenberry and violet pastille flavors that gain sweetness with air and show sharp delineation and mineral cut. A seamless, spice-laced finish shows excellent tenacity, a subtle trace of tannins, lingering spicecake and candied red fruit notes.

Producer:  After founding Ole Imports in 1999, Patrick Mata and his partner Alberto Orte Espejo decided in 2003 to establish another company that was directly involved in the production of wine in different areas of Spain. The result was Vinos Atlántico, whose fundamental mission is to find great vineyard-sites and indigenous varietals from old vines in high elevation vineyards.

Vineyard and Winemaking:  A Portela - meaning "a Doorstep to heaven" - is the name of the high elevation 12-acre hill located in the town of Larouco in the autonomous region of Galicia, where the Mencía vines that make this profound mineral wine come from. The vines were planted from 1976 - 1990 and grow on clay, granite and slate soil at an altitude of 500 - 700 m (1,640 - 2,625 ft).   After harvest, the skins mix with the unfermented juice for five days at 45F. This pre-fermentation “cold soak” enhances the wines aromas, color and flavor. Once fermentation has taken place, the skins spend another 10 days in tanks to extract all beneficial colors and tannins. The wine is aged 12 months in stainless steel tanks plus another 8 months in French oak barrels. This is a vegan wine.