This is a fabulous, new wave Spanish red (despite the old-school label)! It's all there in the heady aromas of wild cherry, orange peel and white pepper - in other words, classic Mencia - which interlace seamlessly with the silky palate to create a wonderfully pure and harmonious wine. There's an elegance and a sense of cold-stone minerality, attributable to the vines, which grow on vertiginous, granite-based, terraced vineyards, which tumble down to the River Sil below, so steeply that, from the other side of the river, they look like venetian blinds. This wine comes from a single-vineyard plot of 70-year-old vines, fermented with whole clusters and aged in large oak barrels. 13% alc. Drink now-2030.

Press review:

Vinous: "Saturated bright-hued garnet. Spice- and earth-tinged cherry and black raspberry aromas pick up suave floral and succulent herb nuances with air. Concentrated red and dark fruit preserve and liquorice flavours are energised by smoky mineral and exotic spice notes. Blends depth and energy with a sure hand and finishes very long, smoky and gently chewy with dusty tannins adding final grip. Drink now-2030." 93 points

The Wine Advocate (previous vintage): "What differentiates the 2016 A Boca do Demo from the other reds from Castro Candaz is the stony character of the palate, with the strict austerity of the granite and some chalk, finishing dry and long. It's elegant and perfumed, with violets, red berries and blood orange peel notes, a super-mineral personality and very fine tannins. Simply superb." 95+ points

Jancis Robinson MW: "A new collaborative project between Bierzo’s Raúl Pérez and Rias Baixas’ Rodrigo Méndez (Forjas des Salnés). Raúl already had a foothold in the region through Guímaro, with whom he produces his two most famous schist-based Ribeira Sacra bottlings in Amandi: La Penitencia and El Pecado. With Méndez they scouted out the cooler, less well-known La Chantada appellation, where the Sil river widens, and the soils are more granite-based. A Boca do Demo is the premium wine in the range; a single-vineyard plot of 70-year-old vines, fermented with whole clusters and aged in larger-format used oak barrels.
From the land of viticultura heroica, as advertised on the front label. Blackish purple. Very edgy nose, even though this has come straight from the cellar. Do be careful to keep this wine fairly cool. Sweet start and very juicy and smooth with a minerally polish – a bit like a polished stone in texture somehow. Definitely to be served cool. Tastes racy and like a pumice stone on the palate. Fun, and with a determinedly period label – clever. Long and fresh. What a nightmare to be given this blind. (JR). Drink now-2026." 16.5 points