Staff Notes:

"The 2019 Pètalos from the Ricardo Perez’s and Alvaro Palacios’ Bierzo project, Descendientes de J. Palacios, is a superb young bottle of Mencía. The wine offers a pure and complex bouquet of dark berries, graphite, pomegranate, a hint of anise, stony minerality, tree bark and a bit of chicory in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and beautifully balanced, with a fine core, excellent soil signature and grip, ripe tannins and a long, complex and very promising finish. This bottling is designed for early drinking, but to my palate, the excellent 2019 Pètalos is too serious to drink without giving it at least a handful of years in the cellar to let some of its backend tannins soften up and more of the submerged complexity here to surface. This is excellent." 93 Points John Gilman, View From the Cellar

"Dark cherries, plums, dried herbs and stones on the nose. Full-bodied with fine-grained tannins. Rich, layered, and textured with minerality and balance. Supple finish. Drink or hold." 93 Points James Suckling