2017 Ladredo

A strong peppery and herbal strike in the 2017 Ladredo prompted me to uncork a second bottle, which I found to be exactly the same. This is the Ribeira Sacra from Niepoort that was produced and bottled at Guímaro. The Ladredo vineyard contains a high percentage of Garnacha Tintorera, surely 30%, interplanted with Mencía. The old vineyards always had a field blend, but it varied depending on the place. This fermented with 100% full clusters in oak vats with native yeasts and matured in 225-liter oak barrels for 12 months. The wine changes a lot in the glass, and it's always a wild and a little funky. In a warm year like 2017, they harvested very early and managed to keep 13% alcohol, and this has a more herbal rather than floral character, with a volatile touch. This wine has a good track record for ageability, and it often shows disjointed and weird when young. I kept the open bottle and followed it for three or four days to see how it developed and to get a hint of what the wine can do in bottle. After all, it's still a question mark. 1,200 bottles were filled in November 2019.