Viticola Mentridana
El Mentridano 2023 Garnacha Vino del Pueblo
Reviews
The Wine Advocate 92+/100
The pale and ethereal 2023 El Mentridano has an herbal freshness (fig leaves), bright red fruit and floral aromas and a much more balanced palate and finer tannins. This is the effect of the cooler (or less warm) year, as they did similar vinification: 100% full clusters (they do not have a destemmer) fermented in oak vats with indigenous yeasts with a short maceration (to keep the fruit) and matured in those large vats (10,000 liters) and some foudres for around 10 months. It has contained ripeness and lower alcohol (14%) but especially great balance. 20,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2024.
There's a new white from Vitícola Mentridana in 2023 produced with 10-year-old Garnacha Blanca from Méntrida. I tasted wines from 2022 and 2023, two warm years, but 2023 was a shorter summer (less accumulated days of high temperatures but high spikes). At El Real de San Vicente, they had a little rain before both harvest, but in Méntrida, it only rained in 2023. The 2023s are pale, less concentrated, more ethereal wines despite the longer macerations, and they have a little lower alcohol. They are in the process of certifying their 15 hectares of vineyards, 50% in Méntrida and the other half in El Real de San Vicente, but they purchase the white grapes from a vineyard they work on behalf of the owner.
