Sacred Shore, 'Three Mile Vineyard'. Mencia, 2023

Sacred Shore Mencia “Three Mile Island” 2023 - Columbia Gorge
$42. Soul Wine Price $35.70

“Mencía is proving to thrive at Three Mile vineyard. Closer to Bierzo than Ribeiro in spiritual kinship, the drastic diurnal shift and strong winds highlight a mineral depth we love about this grape. The vines are planted on Cherryhill Loam soils facing East-Northeast at the extreme of the vineyard. There is often still snow on the ground here into early Spring. The cover crop is a native seed mix, foraged from plants onsite.

For our own edification we employed two distinct methods of vinification. Half of the fruit was sorted into the fermenter as whole clusters; this lot spent ten days seeing pump overs and light pigeage seeking light extraction. The second half was destemmed and left on its skins to ferment with targeted aeration to extract and resolve tannings for a full 30 days. Each lot was pressed and kept separate for 16 months in barrel before racking and blending to be bottled together.”

This is the wine that pushed Anders and I over the edge. We love the Galician version of Mencia that is crunchy and energetic, and this wine delivered, delivered and delivered with snappy dark cherry fruit, a fresh earthiness, and again, mouthwatering freshness (it seems to be a thing for these folks).