Algueira 'Risco' Merenzao 2019

Spain's answer to red burgundy. This wine has been a back of house favourite at Five Way Cellars for some years. I recall dad blinding me on the 2010 release and i didn't even consider that the wine could be Spanish; my mind went straight to Chambolle. It's a lively and slightly wild wine showing red fruit, red meat, charcuterie and spice. It's expansive and mouthfilling with deep concentration, yet as other great wines of the world achieve, it has a feeling of lightness in the mouth. Try a bottle to whitness the heights Spanish Trousseau can reach. - Ches Cook, FWC.

Merenzao is the same variety as Trousseau (and Bastardo in Portugal) and was probably brought to Ribeira Sacra by the Cistercian monks who set up camp here in the Middle Ages. Algueira’s Merenzao vines have an average age of 80 years and are rooted in a steep slope of gneiss, quartz and slate in the Amandi Gorge. The fruit sees a wild yeast, 100% whole-bunch ferment, is pressed by foot and aged for 12 months in old oak and some local chestnut vessels.