Rosa Rivero Mencía Crianza

The first and, so far, only Crianza wine from the Valdeorras DO and Galicia. This excellent limited-edition wine is the pride of the Virgen del Galir winery, made with grapes selected with the utmost care and attention from century-old terraced slate vineyards in the magnificent Valdemioto estate located at an altitude of 500 metres.

Harvested by hand, the grapes are destemmed but not crushed before undergoing a cold pre-fermentation maceration at 0ºC for 4 days to extract the essence of the fruit's primary aromas. Local yeasts are used for the alcoholic fermentation and following the secondary malolactic fermentation, the wine is left to stand for 12 months in French oak barrels and a further minimum of 6 months in the bottle before going on sale.

The 2017 harvest in the last week of August that year was the earliest ever in Valdeorras and produced one of the lowest yields on record due to the tough frosts experienced the previous spring. However, its quality was excellent and produced splendid, fresh and aromatic wines with a clear Atlantic character.

Rosa Vivero Mencía Crianza is a pure slate wine whose measured wood simply rounds off and highlights the sublime quality of its fruit. The Mencia grapes and balance of a wine from inland Galicia are immediately noticeable as are the spicy notes from its time in barrels and the mature sensations of grapes which have made the most of months of sunlight. It offers a virtually perfect harmony between maturity and freshness, with hints of ash sitting over fragrances of plums and blackcurrants. Herbal flavours bring to mind forest undergrowth and eucalyptus fruit.