“Liar”?
Not really!
“Mentidero” is the name of the wine I would like to tell you about today. Which, in French, inevitably makes one think of “menteur” – liar.
To be honest, I initially thought it was a Canary Islands variation of the Spanish adjective “mentiroso”.
But no. After a bit of research, the word actually refers to a place: the one where locals gather to talk, exchange gossip… or a few harmless “tall tales”.
This particular Mentidero is located in the small village of Masdache, on the volcanic island of Lanzarote. Masdache lies right in the centre of the island, in the area where the soil is at its blackest, where the volcanic ash, the “rofe”, has covered everything.
It is precisely this rofe that gave the estate
“Puro Rofe” its name.
And Mentidero is the most distinctive wine of the entire estate, which we have known since its early days and have distributed since the 2019 vintage. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons (including the illness of the owner), 2023 was the final year of production for this estate.
But no need to worry: a successor for our Lanzarote wines is planned before the end of the year.
Still, it remains quite tragic that such an estate, which sparked the qualitative awakening of viticulture on the island, had to stop. Before Puro Rofe, most of the wines produced here were rather simple, barely good enough to quench the thirst of passing tourists.
But the wines of Puro Rofe were anything but simple. If you wanted to taste the salinity of vineyards close to the Ocean and the minerality of volcanic soils,
you were definitely in the right place!
From the very first time we tasted these wines,
we were captivated by their complexity and authenticity. These are the kind of wines we truly love to stand up for!
Commercially, it was not always easy. More than ten grape varieties, spread across various lieu-dits on the island; 24 bottles of one cuvée, 60 of another… Such small volumes do not make market positioning straightforward.
But the wine lovers who placed their trust in us know just how extraordinary these wines are!
The most complex of them all is precisely Mentidero. A blend of typical varieties grown together in field blend, predominantly white grapes, with a small proportion of red varieties as well (which explains the deeper colour of the wine).
Luis Gutiérrez was also a great fan of the estate’s wines. As a result, they consistently received excellent scores and strong praise.
For example:
R. Parker: 94/100 Puro Rofe, Mentidero 2021
The 2021 Mentidero comes from a single vineyard in the village of Masdache, a place with a history for this wine in the past, so they decided to keep it separately. They use all the grapes, a majority of Listán Blanco, Malvasía Volcánica and Diego and even the small percentage of red Listán Negro, so the wine has a little deeper color. It's more austere than the village Masdache, a little rougher, with lovely rusticity, and the sharp character from the vintage. Despite the year, it's a little higher in alcohol, 13%, reflecting slow ripening, which also meant full development of aromas and flavors.
R. Parker: 94+/100 Puro Rofe, Mentidero 2023
The 2023 Mentidero is from a plot from the village of Masdache, produced like it always has been, with a vinification of all the varieties together. It has a salmon-golden color from the blend of Malvasía Volcánica, Listán Blanco, Listán Negro and Diego grapes. It's ripe at 14%, because they were waiting for Diego and the red grapes, so the wine is more powerful and round, gentle, but with the finesse of the year. As I saw in the 2023s, the wine is very clean, a little more rustic, but very Lanzarote.
From these two fantastic vintages, we have just enough bottles left to offer you 13 “Mentidero Blablabla-packs” of 6 bottles.
Namely:
- 2 bottles of Mentidero 2021
- 4 bottles of Mentidero 2023