Mencía
Get to Know this Wine Grape
Mencía (“Men-thee-ah”) is a medium-bodied red wine
grape that produces high quality wines with floral and
red fruit flavors. If you’ve never
heard of it, it’s not surprising, Mencía only grows in Spain and
Portugal on the Iberian peninsula. What makes Mencía special is it has
shown the ability to age like other fine wines and it offers rich aromas
in the glass.
Mencía contains high levels of a sub-group of aroma compounds called
terpenoids which translate into lovely flowery aromas, strawberry,
raspberry, black licorice, pomegranate and cherry sauce. When you look
at a glass of Mencía, you’ll notice its deep red color with subtle hues
of violet towards the rim. The color tells us that Mencía has high
anthocyanin (the red pigment in wine). On the palate you’ll be greeted
with peppery flavors of
sour cherry, red currant and pomegranate along with a bitter cherry
pit
flavor which comes from the wine’s tannin.
In the regions where it grows in Spain and Portugal, you will taste a
subtle crushed gravel or granite-like minerality in the texture, which
often contributes to its black peppery taste.
If you love
Pinot Noir
and other aromatic reds (like
Gamay
or
Schiava), then Mencía is something worth investigating.