R. Parker (97/100)
I find the 2020 Moncerbal a little more closed than the other 2020s, darker and serious. It's still moderately ripe, with 13.8% alcohol, sweet tannins and a soft texture. Today, it shows a little austere and very calm—it whispers. It's quite discreet. It was bottled in October 2021, during the 2021 harvest. This is already certified organic from 2020 onward. Approachable already. 5,000 bottles were filled in October 2021. These wines were usually bottled in January/February of the following year, so in 2020 they had a shorter élevage in barrel. The wines were ready earlier.
They are bottling the wines from Bierzo earlier than ever, so I already tasted the 2020s in bottle for the region's article at the end of January 2022. I include those notes here for the completeness of the article, but now I only tasted the unbottled 2021s, from a very different year, which, according to Ricardo Pérez Palacios, was the most challenging year so far, a year when Mencía wouldn't ripen! I had already tasted some of those 2021s before, and back then, even if the wines were going through full malolactic, the Moncerbal already shone and felt to be among the finest vintages for this paraje.
2021 was an atypical year, cooler but with a warm and dry end of the season. They harvested some grapes at the end of August and then they had to stop ... because the grapes wouldn't ripen! So, Pétalos is only 13.5% alcohol. Some wines have a reductive character; it was a cooler and dry year, and the wines showed that character, continental and cold, despite the heat in July and August. The wines are juicy and aromatic, a lot fresher than they anticipated. The wines have contained alcohol (all around 13.5%) and a narrower profile. It should be a long-lived vintage, perhaps not as juicy as the 2018s, but with very good balance and freshness