Mencia

Mencía was mistaken for a relative of Cabernet Franc for years, on the strength of a family resemblance in the glass. DNA testing ended that: it is its own Iberian variety, the same grape that northern Portugal grows as Jaen. The mistake is still worth knowing, because it tells you what the wine tastes like.

Its two homes are Bierzo in Castile and León and Ribeira Sacra in Galicia, and both are extreme. Ribeira Sacra is terraced almost vertically above the Sil and Miño rivers, on slate, and the fruit is carried out by hand or by winch. Bierzo is gentler but also works slate and quartzite slopes. On those poor stony soils and at altitude the grape gives a red of moderate colour, fresh acidity and real perfume: violets, red cherry, graphite and a wet stone note.

On flat fertile ground it does none of that. Mencía crops heavily if it is allowed to, and the wine then turns simple and dilute. The revival that began in the late 1990s was essentially a decision to farm the hard sites again, using old vines that had been abandoned as uneconomic.