'Finca Pombeiras' Single Vineyard Mencía 2020

Pombeiras is the coolest climate single site - 70-year-old vines planted on granite and quartz over pizzara, south-east facing to the rising sun. Fermented in large 20-year-old 'Cuba' French oak with 10% stems, all whole bunches, for 60 days, then aged 10 months in 5-year-old 500l French barrels. Pombeiras means 'pigeons'.

Pombeiras faces Finca Capeliños, 500 metres away over a hillside blind. Both share Mencía's classical rose thorn, soy and blood tells and the shiny dark-but-fresh mineral thread given by Ribeira Sacra's brown-black schist. But they are wines of considerable terroir-gifted contrast.

This smells impossibly of time travel - weightless yet effortlessly vast. A constellation of spices weave through a cloud of savoury perfume, in a wine of majestic, elegant structure, free of glycerol and delicately bitter. Wild cherry, hibiscus, pomegranate, wild peppercorns and an umami hit. Ultra-fine tannin yields satin in a palate of grace, purity and elegance. Delicate and infinite, a wine of great poise and class. Incredible.