Mencía

Spain's revival grape — schist soils, fresh and floral.

Mencía is the indigenous red grape of Galicia (Ribeira Sacra, Valdeorras) and Bierzo in northwestern Spain. Long misidentified as Cabernet Franc, it was confirmed a separate grape by DNA testing. The wines are pale to medium-bodied, with bright red fruit, notable acidity, and a distinctive graphite-mineral character from Bierzo's slate soils. Old-vine plantings on near-vertical terraces along the Sil and Miño rivers produced an early-2000s renaissance led by Álvaro Palacios, Raúl Pérez, and others.