Descendientes de J. Palacios, Las Lamas, Bierzo DO

2019 Descendientes Palacios Las Lamas from Bierzo, Spain. 92% Mencía and 8% Palomino. I love this wine and the others I’ve had from this producer. Try it and see if it rivals the Grand Cru of Burgundy in a blind tasting. This has fresh cherry, spice, scent of vanilla buttercream, red licorice, French lavender, tree bark, fine/grainy tannins. So ethereal on the palate. Defintely get some 95+ Points

2024-05 Vinorules Spanish at Scopri (Scopri) : Tasted blind. Full rich, concentrated. Too much. 89

A Trottertastic Saturday (Les 2 Garçons) : Two bottles drunk, with consistent impressions. Slightly lean and very pure nose of berry fruit; I felt I could almost detect the grape seeds! Plenty of clean, concentrated raspberry fruit on the palate, an attractive earthy grip and an enduring finish.

Immediately fine and elegant but reticent, at 3 hours rough and tannic. At 4 hours the VA is there but blueberry and plum, with fresh green herbs and cherry cough syrup. The description doesn’t match the end result, it’s thrilling, generous full and elegant. Cool vintage that captures the best of this grape and producer. Oak fully integrated. It’s wild and alive. Fantastic with Vietnamese pork and black peppercorns

2/3. Eight months since our last bottle. Garrigue, cranberry and blackberry on the nose. Olive tapenade, blackcurrant, blackberry and sweet spice on the palate. Intense flavours, pure fruits, well balanced, nice tannic grip with medium finish. Drunk with roast lamb, a fantastic bottle!

Pop and pour. Bright floral with candied cherry notes. Very expressive and intense nose. The palate is wonderfully balanced.

1/3. Garrigue, smoke, bacon fat, cranberry and blackberry on the nose. Olive tapenade, salt, blackberry and sweet spice on the palate. Nicely balanced, good tannic grip, medium finish with lingering salinity. Quite distinctive, very enjoyable, will aim to give my remaining bottles sme additional time to see how this develops.

Intense nose of black raspberry with menthol earthiness. The tastes were more muted at first, as there were still tannins wrapped around them. This seemed a bit high in alcohol, but the effect was deftly handled so it did not become a distraction. I would give this more time, but the current state is quite good. Not for the faint of heart though.

dense, and still closed down. wait

Pnp in Burgundy glasses. The nose on this is amazing: red strawberry and raspberry with Vosne spices and Autumn undergrowth. It could be Burgundy! But not on the palate - wow, sea salt, wild herbs. Fresh. Hints of red fruit. Alcohol bitterness. Finishes long. Not Barolo but in that sort of territory. This has transformed over the last year - the nose is simply incredible. The palate will always suffer a little from the alcohol for my palate but we …

Not ready. Powerful, Rhone style bramble with a hint of mint and an almost sea salt freshness. Rich and full. But bitter from the alcohol - 15% - and out of balance even with 3 hours air. Day 2 - the bitterness is gone from the finish; still ripe and full with alcohol warmth but integrated, blueberry and cranberry flavours on the nose and palate with dried herbs too. Not going to score. Alcohol may always be an issue. Give …

Dark purple in color. Lots of berry tones as well as some flower tones. The wine as very fullbodied with hint of stable/brett tones as well as some mint. The acidity was very good and most likely this wine could age for several decades.

Very shy and muted on nose, barely some fruit. On palate it's way too young, astringent, present and almost aggressive tannins, red fruit, balanced, medium to full bodied and a very long finish. 91+