Wine Advisor
Descendientes de Jose Palacios, Moncerbal 2022
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Luis Gutiérrez
The bottled 2022 Moncerbal was produced with 95% Mencía and 5% Palomino (locally called Jerez) from six plots that total 2.61 hectares of vines at 610 to 730 meters in altitude that matured in oak foudres for eight months. The vines from Moncerbal really suffered in 2022; it's a stony and shallow place that might get blocked in warmer years. The wine doesn't transmit any heat and has managed to keep the freshness, but it suffers in comparison with the 2022 Las Lamas and especially with the 2023 Moncerbal, which could be the finest Moncerbal in the making... 6,480 bottles, 138 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in August 2023. All the 2022s are around 13.5% alcohol.
About the Producer
Descendientes de José Palacios (DJP) is one of three estates of the family of Álvaro Palacios. The 'Descendientes' are Álvaro Palacios and his nephew Ricardo Perez Palacios, both of whom grew up in the Palacios family home in Alfaro, Rioja. Both are descendents of Álvaro's father, José Palacios, who died in 2000, just as the first Bierzo wines were being prepared and for whom the Bierzo project was then named. DJP commenced in 1999, when the young Ricardo was studying permaculture in Leon, subsequent to his viticultural studies in Bordeaux. Ricardo came across some very old plantings of Mencía high on the mountain slopes above the village of Corullón, and recognised these as heritage material of great potential and importance, just as Álvaro has done a decade earlier with the remnant old autochthonous Garnatxas of Priorat. Álvaro was summoned to inspect and an immediate decision was made to invest and investigate. Ever since, Ricardo and Álvaro have been purchasing and renovating old vineyards, massale propogating heritage genetic material throughout their holdings, all the while refining how to grow and vinify Mencía.
