'Viernes' Mencía 2021
$42.00 RRP
Godelia is wine come from a combination of very old schist-soiled mountain vines and maturing vines from the clay hill-slopes in the centre of the valley. Initially, the then 20+ year old vines and some 90 year old bush vines in the mountains were entrusted to a Catalan winemaker brought in from outside specifically to avoid local complacency and to revise inherited bad viticultural habits (endemic in the region at the time).
The brief was freshness and elegance. The name, Godelia, is Vicente’s invention – intended to allude to a fresh and feminine Bierzo, it is a made up contraction of Godello and Lias.
Viernes epitomises Bierzo’s Mencia, but with atypically great natural acidity to partner the fine, plush tannin. Expect red fruit, blue florals, fine and fleshy tannins with dark cooking spices (clove, nutmeg, pepper-corn) down below the floral lift. There’s the gamey hint you expect in Bierzo and the agrodulce (sweet and sour) vibration you hope for in top Mencia, giving excellent mid-palate life before mellowing out to the brilliant finish. Sour cherry, purple fruits, briar, touches of gamey-earthen funk, and that ringing allspice-acid surprise to end.