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Tasting notes
The barrel sample of 2024 Al Chelo is brimming in earthy dirt, mushroom, and rose petal, the 95% Mencia and 5% Jerez bursting in white pepper. A special year with ideal weather conditions, the vineyard faces north at high altitude, and you can feel the tannins at the end of the palate. Grippy and weighty, this full-bodied beauty is incredibly spicy, complex, and beguiling, rich in black fruit, pencil lead, and graphite, extremely refined from start to finish. Founded in 1999 by Alvaro Palacios and his nephew Ricardo Perez Palacios, this producer is all about showing off the bedrock, metamorphic, and slate soils in Bierzo, using it as a canvas for the different profiles of Mencia. They farm vineyards that are 130 years old and at high elevation, many interplanted with whites like Palomino.
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Average Score
Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
The second vintage of the new exceptional wine from the lieu-dit of Valdafoz is the 2024 Al Chelo, mostly Mencía with some 5% white Jerez, fermented with partially destemmed grapes in oak vats with a maceration of 42 days. At the moment, it comes in at 13% alcohol and a pH of 5.59, showing exceptional freshness. This is a vineyard that didn't ripen in the past and has benefitted from the climate change. It's a wine with more grip, different from the rest; it has a different texture and does not have the fine-boned character of La Faraona, the edge of the Moncerbal or the vinous character of Las Lamas. It's a mysterious wine; I think for the long haul...