Capitán Beto 2018

The new kid on the block is the red 2018 Capitán Beto, mostly Mencía from villages in the southeast of Ponferrada, Ozuela, Rimos and Orbanajo, where the soils are slate based and the vines old and planted in a field blend with small percentages of other grapes—mostly Garnacha Tintorera, Doña Blanca and Palomino—on steep slopes. They have selected the plots with deeper soils that tend to produce more immediate and rounder wines for this bottling, but the concept is the same as for the Mundo Zeppelling Mencía de Pueblo. The partly destemmed grapes fermented with indigenous yeasts in chestnut and stainless steel vats and matured in neutral and well-seasoned oak barrels for 10 months. It has a light color and a nose of red berries (wild strawberries and raspberries), with a spicy side. This is more fruit-driven and quite expressive, with a medium-bodied palate, fine tannins and fresh flavors of acid berries. 4,500 bottles produced. It was bottled in October 2019.