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Somos Wines

2021

Mencía

Adelaide Hills - Australia
Shelf Talker Spec Sheet Wine Label Bottle Image

About

In late 2019 the Somos boys knew the days of the Carignan-Cinsault/Mazuelo-Cinsault were drawing to an end. What could replace that delightful, vibrant crunchy wine? They got a lead on a relatively new planting of the Galician red variety Mencía, tucked away in a little valley in the Adelaide Hills. It has been dry-farmed/organically farmed since it was planted and now really starting to show its personality. Ben & Mauricio have nicknamed this wine the ‘The Iberian Lynx’ in order to differentiate it from the previous ‘Lynx’ label. This is one of Australia’s best examples of the grape.

The fruit was hand-harvested and placed into a number of small picking bin ferments, some with tons of whole-bunches, some without. Some bins were pressed early, and others were left on the skins for a bit longer. Each one was pressed separately and into 2-4th fill Burgundian French oak for close to a year. Trying to follow the canons in Ribeira Sacra where this variety has restraint and poise to the point of the sublime, this is a really delicate, floral, bunchy expression.

Stats

  • Grapes: 100% Mencía
  • Vineyard: Saint-Clar Vineyard – farmed by Jon O'Connell
  • Vine Age: 5-years-old (grafted onto 1998 Sauv Blanc)
  • Soil Type: Red-brown sandy loam with ironstone nodules and a band of yellow clay
  • Viticulture: Practicing organic – dry-farmed
  • Fermentation: Native - stainless steel (75% partial whole cluster for 7 days, 25% full whole cluster carbonic maceration for 21 days)
  • Skin Contact: 7-21 days
  • Aging: 12 months in 3-4 year old French oak
  • Alcohol: 12.5%
  • Residual Sugar: 2.1
  • pH: 3.57
  • Total Acidity: 5.12 g/L
  • Total SO2: 73 ppm
  • Total Production: 416 cases
  • UPC: 9350675000388

Tasting Note

Fresh, bouncy, and just the perfect amount of crispy. Cranberry, pomegranate and maybe those little poisonous holly berries (have you had them?) along with a brambly, peppery sort of thing on the nose. Blood orange notes emerge with a bit of a thyme lemonade note. The palate is refreshing and penetrating with plenty of zing and elevation. The finish has the tiniest amount of tannins and mouthwatering acidity continuing.

Press & Reviews

James Suckling

92

"Mencia is performing well here. Think cool-climate syrah with greater levity, florals and whole-bunch spiky astringency. This is barely mid-weight, but forfeits no flavor or presence. Delicious drinking! Iodine, blueberry, lilac and a touch of lavender, clove, fennel seed and lapsang souchong are strewn across the pushy finish. Drink now. Diam."

- Ned Goodwin, MW
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Producer


Somos Wines

Region


Adelaide Hills

Country


Australia

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