One of the best-value wines in our portfolio, Mengoba’s entry-level white is a blend of 90% Godello and 10% Doña Blanca sourced from a range of Bierzo’s highland vineyards. The Godello is drawn mainly from a stony Carracedo site, as well as from some sandy loam and clay/limestone plots in Valtuille and Villafranca del Bierzo. The Doña Blanca hails from similar sites and includes some older gobelet material from the slate soils of Espanillo. The age of the vines sits between 20 and 80 years, and all the fruit is harvested by hand, which is remarkable when you consider the price. The wine fermented with native yeasts and was raised on its fine lees in tank and large cask for six months. 

Gregory Pérez’s white wines have never tasted as pure and energetic as they do today. The new release is a superbly tangy wine offering an array of pulpy citrus, wet stone and spearmint flavour and finishing with a juicy, mineral quality. It’s a cracking bargain from some of Spain’s most spectacular vineyards.

Gregorio Pérez’s entry-level Mencía comes from multiple remote parcels of 30- to 60-year-old vines dotted around the slate-rich hillsides of Valtuille and Villafranca del Bierzo. The blend also takes in a splash of Godello and Garnacha Tintorera (Alicante Bouschet)—a legacy of the traditional make-up of Bierzo’s vineyards. Pérez destemmed 80% of his fruit to pursue something pure, refreshing and juicy, and the wine fermented spontaneously in stainless-steel tanks. Bottled early to capture all that joyous, mouthwatering Mencía character, this is an excellent port of call if you fancy a detour from Cru Beaujolais or Loire Cabernet Franc.

Pérez's 2023 release has everything we look for in a wine from the easy-drinking leagues: authenticity, refreshment and fun, with a large side order of place. Putting the value to one side, the great achievement here is that the striking fleshiness of fruit is finely offset by the bright, fresh structure—a balance reflective of the altitude and the diurnal contrast (warm days followed by cold nights). A real charmer.

Pérez’s core white wine is exclusively Godello drawn from a selection of 30- to 40-year-old plots in Cacabelos, Valtuille and Villafranca del Bierzo. The parcels cover a range of soil profiles, including river stones, sandy loam and slate soils, all lying at 550 metres. This wine fermented with wild yeast in wooden foudre and was raised for 10 months on fine lees in two 4,000-litre oval wooden vats.

Here is another example of how far Pérez’s white wines have progressed in terms of precision and clarity in recent years. The aging is longer and less reductive than for its younger sibling, which only seems to enhance the sense of smoky minerality—a reflection of the slate and calcareous soil in which the vines grow. It is a complex and stimulating mountain white that is, by turns, grapefruity, fleshy, powdery and savoury. The finish throws up deep, earthy mineral notes and perfumed, mouth-watering length. Again, it packs in much bang for your buck.

The vineyard of Espanillo sits at an altitude of 850 metres and is perhaps the highest in Bierzo. It’s Pérez’s flagship vineyard with rocky, fragmented slate and decomposed shale soils, and older vines that are reaching 90 years of age. As with many Spanish vineyards at this age, the parcel is a mixed planting; essentially Mencía with 15% Garnacha Tintorera, Estaladiña and Godello. Instead of discarding the latter varieties, as many do, Pérez feels they play an essential part in the story of this vineyard and its wine.

Not only are the vines very old but the vineyard is also managed the way it was 90 years ago, using ox-drawn plough. With the elevation, aspect and rock-strewn soil, this work is not as romantic as it sounds. This is hard, hard yakka. Today the field blend is fermented with a portion of the white bunches in 5,000 litre French-coopered Grenier foudre and then raised for just under a year in 2,500 litre oak ovals. This is Pérez’s finest example to date; a gorgeously pure, unforced Bierzo with oodles of crunchy plum, anise and black pepper-scented fruit with the silkiest of textures. A lick of earthy mineral here, some smoked meat complexity there; this is the blood of the mountain and a beautiful Spanish red.

This obscure variety only just managed to stave off extinction in Bierzo. Traditional thinking suggested that Estaladiña is none other than Jura's Trousseau, more commonly known in northern Iberia as Bastardo or Merenzao. Today, some growers are not so sure; the vines and their grapes look different enough to warrant a challenge to the conventional viewpoint. In modern history, this pale-skinned grape has become rare enough to drop off the list of permitted D.O. varieties in Bierzo—something hard to rationalise as you taste this beautiful, floral, red berry--scented highland red.

Pérez’s wine is drawn from one of Bierzo’s few remaining Estaladiña vineyards in the Alto Bierzo, planted 35 years ago in the poor clay, rocky soils of Cacabelos at 540 metres above sea level. The winemaking has evolved in lockstep with Pérez’s understanding of this rare variety. The fruit is now picked earlier, while maceration is more infusion than extraction. Grapes are foot-trodden and ferment as whole bunches in two 400-litre terracotta jars. The wines are raised in the same vessels for 10 months with no added sulphur.

The result is a beautiful, floral and delicately spicy expression of the Bierzo highlands and something completely unique. Pérez has nailed this one. Flavours of crushed red berries and wildflowers float across a lacy palate that strikes excellent tension between crisp acidity and light, tender tannins. It finishes with tangy-berry deliciousness and impressive persistence. Elegance, perfume and charm: this has it all. Burgundy and Jura lovers will not be disappointed!