Adega Sainas - 'Silente', Mencia, Ribeira Sacra, Spain (2021)

TASTING NOTES

Intense red colour. Very fruity, elegant and charming wine with amazing sweet and silky tannins. The aftertaste is long and very fresh.

This wine is the result of a group of small, organically farmed, estate plots in the town of Espasantes, where the winery is located. Each plot is vinified separately and the vinification methods are tailored to the individual plots to get the maximum potential out of each of them. The ‘Silente’ is a blend of 95% Mencía & 5% Garnacha Tintorera from 20-50 year old vines planted at an elevation of 340-420 meters above sea level. The soils are mainly sandy loam with a predominance of granite.

Adega Saíñas' first vintage was in 1992 when Javier Fernández González decided to return to his roots and show what the terroirs of Ribeira Sacra can offer. He restored some of the ancient terraced vineyards that the winery still owns today. Upon his death in 2019, his daughter Saleta and her husband Jorge left their jobs as engineers and decided to take over the estate. They are dedicated to doing the hard work in the vineyard that this area demands, but they quickly realized they were not doing their grapes justice in the cellar. In 2021, they brought on renowned winemaker Luis Seabra and he has been making the wines at Adega Saíñas ever since.

Jorge and Saleta farm about 5 hectares of estate vines, scattered across various parcels in the Ribeiras do Miño subregion of Ribeira Sacra. Their vineyards of organic, dry-farmed old vines are planted on steep terraces above the Cabe River, at between 340 and 420 meters above sea level.