Nanclares y Prieto | "Miñato da Raña Tinto," Mencía Blend | Ribeira Sacra, Spain | 2018
🧑🤝🧑 Pair with: grilled meats, game, mushroom-based sauces, charcuterie boards
🧑🏽🌾 Farming: Practicing Organic
🥶 Serve: Slightly chilled ~20-30 minutes in the fridge
🌎 Region: Ribeira Sacra, Spain
🍇 Grape Varieties: 60% Mencía, 30% Garnacha Tintorera, 10% white grapes (Godello and Palomino)
📦 Production: 55 Cases
🌱 Vine age: 100+ years
🤓 Geek Out: Alberto Nanclares became a vigneron in the mid-1990's after retiring from his career as an Economist. He and his wife moved to Spain's North Atlantic seaside village of Castrelo to relax and enjoy retirement. The property itself happened to have some vineyard land which he eventually began to farm as a hobby with the help of some neighbors. The first vintage was vinified in his garage in 1997. Today, Alberto, with the help of his friend, Silvia Prieto, farms a mere 5 hectares of vines in Rias Baixas that are dispersed amongst 13 tiny parcels.
Nanclares y Prieto's focus is to make classic age-worthy Albariños that express both variety and terruño via organic viticulture and VERY minimal intervention in the cellar. The coastal Atlantic town of Cambados, where many of these parcels are located, is considered the ancestral home to the Albariño grape. Although they may be known for their Albariños, the duo also makes some amazing reds or "vinos tintos."
Miñato de Raña comes from a very steep, south-facing vineyard (named “A Raña”) of centenarian vines grown on granite soils. After a complicated growing season with hot and cold spikes, hand-harvesting took place on Sept. 24th. Grapes were foot-trodden whole cluster and fermented in two 600L open-top barrels with 20 days maceration. The wine was then pressed into used 500L French barrels for malolactic fermentation, and raised for 9 months without racking; bottling is without clarification or filtration and only judicious levels of SO2 were added. This is “Volnay” meets “Cote de Brouilly” - super fresh, focused, with red fruits and wild aromatics of flowers and herbs. Delicious now, this should age well over the next 5-7 years.