Back to the Foreign Vineyard List

Pucho 2005
Bodegas Pucho
D.O. Bierzo

Bodegas Pucho is owned by Jose Luis Martinez and his family. They are growers who recently started making their own wine.

They own 40 hectares of Mencía and a 1-hectare parcel of Godello in the Bierzo Denomination of Origin. Of their 40 hectare parcel, 35 are vines that are 40 to 80 years old; this is found in the area known as Valtuille. The soils are clay-ferrous.

Walking around the vineyards with Jose Luis is a wonderful experience. His passion for this region is incredible. Mencía can be a very productive grape, and It does extremely well in the Bierzo region where the climate is relatively warm. Left unmanaged, a typical Mencía vine can easily produce an outrageous quantity of grapes. Jose Luis prunes back the vines leaving a maximum of four shoots per vine. In addition, he green harvests at the outset of budding to further reduce his yields. The yields oscillate around 45 hectoliters per hectare.

Pucho 2005

Made from the Mencía grape, this purple-power joven is fresh, fruit-packed and interesting. Aromas of rose hips and blackberry lead into a palate that is largely sweet and rich. You get candied raspberry and cherry, but it's not artificial in any way. Finishes clean and nice, with a hint of vanilla.

Wine Makers Notes: An excellent harvest with grapes showing very good sugar levels. Site: Valtuille de Abajo at 400-450 elevation. Made from 100% Mencia sourced from a single plot of our oldest vines. Fermented in stainless steel and bottled unfiltered.

D.O. Bierzo

Bierzo doesn't fit in with the other denominations of Castilla y Leon. Wines from this area are something of a middle ground between the bold wines of the Duero valley and the light, seafood friendly wines of Rias Baixas in Galicia.

Located in the Cantabrian Mountains, vineyards here are planted at elevations around 1,700 or 1,800 feet.

The Mencía grape flourishes in Bierzo, due to a warmer climate than Galicia and more rainfall then theDuero uplands. In fact, over 60% of the denomination is planted with this grape, which makes fruit driven, Beaujolais-like reds.

Though mainly a red wine producing area, a limited amount of white wine is produced from Godello, another native of northwest Spain.