El Castro de Valtuille Mencía Joven 2021

The just-bottled 2021 El Castro de Valtuille Mencía Joven feels a bit reductive but with lots of freshness and balance, possibly the finest vintage of this wine. Since 2020, they have been doing less pumping over (this is the only wine worked with pumps and the only one with temperature control), and this is made all from destemmed grapes fermented in stainless steel. This is one of the wines that transcends its price category, and it's serious and balanced. It has very fine, elegant tannins. They harvested early, and the wine is complete, with great finesse and elegance, great balance and 13.3% alcohol. 2021 was a very rainy harvest, very long and not easy. Fine and elegant, much more serious than the 2020. 100,000 bottles produced. - Luis Gutiérrez.