The UnCorker

2007 D. Ventura Vina Caneiro Ribeira Sacra

May 8, 2009 | In WINE REVIEWS | No Comments

The UnCorker moves it’s way through yet another obscure Spanish DO – this time a tiny neighbor to Bierzo that also specializes in the Mencia grape – DO Ribeira Sacra. Here is an appellation curiously immune to international “tastes” and the Spanish tendency to oak and/or blend their way towards uniform flavor profiles. A region that emphasizes natural wine-making, vine-to-bottle minimalism, finesse, and terroir – a Spanish wine region that’s basically, well, umm… French – at least the pre-modern, pre-Robert Parker France of Kermit Lynch’s imagination. Comparing this wine to a cru Beaujolais is not a stretch – it’s fruity and soft, combines freshness with minerality, and has acidic grip and expressive terroir. It’s fun to drink and great at table, and it doesn’t kick your (or your palette’s) ass. Is it worth $27? Well, that’s another story. That all depends on your point of view, and how much of a wine-store-clerk reactionary anti-snob you are against black, tannic, extracted oak-monsters. We like it all, but frankly – based on pure taste, if this wine was $5-$8 less we would feel better about the deal.

Of course, the more you hear about the story, the more the romance of this place builds. Ribeira Sacra has among the shortest entries in Jancis Robinson’s Oxford Companion to Wine – it tells us only that the area is new (founded as a DO in 1996), in the state of Galicia, and specializes in red wines. And that Galicia otherwise being the home of white wine, particularly the internationally popular Albarinho variety – this seems to be enough to put it on the radar as an up-and-comer region. Ribeira Sacra is known for terraced, difficult terrain – which precludes modern conveniences such as tractors and means that farming grapes is an expensive, manually intensive labor of (barely profitable) love. Sort of a Cote Rotie without the Syrah. D.Ventura is tiny – they farm about 3 hectares of Mencia grapes on single row trellised vineyards carved into the hillside. The winemaker is Gerardo Mendez – who is that rare Spaniard who despises new oak and even goes so far as to experiment with cherry and chestnut wood. This is a region that is boldly producing anti-blockbusters – and the D.Ventura delivers on this understated promise.