Envinate Lousas Parcela Rosende Tinto 2023
Envinate Lousas Parcela Rosende Tinto 2023
97 pts Wine Advocate
Drinking Window: 2025-2035. Without a doubt, the finest Rosende to date is the 2023 Lousas Parcela Rosende. It is at the level of the Seoane. During the end of the élevage and the time spent in bottle, the wine has gained in perfume and elegance, and the meaty edge I saw in the barrel sample last year has disappeared. This is floral, perfumed and intoxicating, and it has a much lower level of ripeness, 12.7% alcohol. There are up to 15% other red and white varieties, which were picked the 13th of September. It fermented with full clusters in bins and a large concrete vat and matured in neutral 228-liter barrels and a 2,000-liter oak foudre for one year. There is a clear step up in perfume, precision and elegance here. Bravo! There are 4,960 bottles and 45 magnums of this. It was bottled in November 2024.
The bottled 2023s from Envínate are from Ribeira Sacra, but sadly, they are sold without appellation of origin. These wines are stunning, possibly their finest collection to date. There is a jump in perfume, complexity and elegance in Seoane, Rosende and Camiño Novo, wines that are a true bargain. The problem is finding them...
2023 was a vintage like in the past, with a rainy winter and normal dates for sprouting, and it was all nice and textbook until June, which was very rainy, with 11 days of non-stop rain, which made things complicated in the vineyards. July and August were dry, as always, until a heat wave at the end of August, with peaks of 41 degrees Celsius and lows of no less than 22 degrees Celsius. They started harvesting at the end of August, and it rained quite a lot during September, so they had to stop the harvest a number of times. So, how are the wines? Despite the difficulties, the wines are floral, fragrant and fine-boned. Apparently, the warmer zones suffered, so they probably did a lot of sorting and discarding. The wines are amazing. Published: Jul 24, 2025
85% Mencía, 15% other varieties (Garnacha Tintorera, Brancellao, Merenzao, Grao Negro, etc)
Vineyard: From 28-60-year-old vines in the Rosende area on light, sandy decomposed granite soils interspersed with feldspar crystals. Alfonso notes that the soils here recall St. Joseph and Cornas in the northern Rhône.
Vinification Method: The grapes were harvested by hand and fermented wholecluster in an open-top 4,200L tank. Maceration lasted roughly 35 days. The wine then completed fermentation and was transferred to one 2,000L foudre and some 228L barrels of used French Oak to rest for a year
