Algueira Ribeira Sacra Carravel 2017

Both Algueira’s flagship Mencías are released five years after harvest. While the Pizarra hails from the warmer terroir of the Carballo Cobo vineyard, Carravel is drawn from several old-vine terraces which hug a cool zone of perilously steep slate and schist soils in the Doade subregion. The fruit was hand-harvested, then foot-trodden and fermented with roughly 20% whole bunches in large wooden tronconique vats before spending between 12 and 24 months in neutral 600-litre barrels (and some very old barriques).