Merenzao

A wine named after Patao

In A Pobra do Brollón, in the province of Lugo, Carlos Carballo farms the A Burata dá Salamanca plot, steep slopes between 400 and 600 metres. He named his Merenzao Xcelso Patao after his father's nickname; despite his age, Patao still helps him in the vineyard every day. Carlos deliberately works outside the rules of the DO, throws away the press wine and clarifies only by letting the wine settle. If you want to drink the Xcelso Patao in the evening, open it in the afternoon, as it changes a lot with air.

The same grape in the Jura

In the Jura, Merenzao is called Trousseau; in Portugal, Bastardo. It gives reds with little colour and fine tannins, and anyone who likes Pinot Noir or Gamay will get on with it quickly. In Galicia it grows mainly in the Ribeira Sacra and Valdeorras, usually as part of a blend. Serve it cooler than most reds, at 12 to 14°C, with poultry or mushroom risotto.

Bottled on its own

• Algueira Risco 2019 from Doade near Sober, grown on gneiss and slate above the Sil. The whole bunches are trodden by foot in 600-litre wooden vats and fermented with their stems, then the wine spends twelve months in French oak.
• Ronsel do Sil Alpendre 2023 from 35-year-old vines on granite, at 500 metres and facing east, 1,400 bottles. An alpendre is the stone shelter where Galician farmers keep their tools.
• Carlos Carballo Xcelso Patao 2020, fully destemmed and fermented with wild yeasts, the temperature kept below 25°C simply by pouring water over the tanks. This vintage came to 417 bottles.

Merenzao after ten years

We carry Risco from 2019, 2014 and 2013, each at 12.5 percent alcohol. The 2014 still shows a clear cherry red with a purple rim and smells of red berries, herbs and dry stone. If you buy only one bottle of Risco, make it this older vintage rather than the 2019. The young Risco can safely go in the cellar for a few more years.