Luna Beberide Mencía Paixar 2018

96 points Luis Gutiérrez (Wine Advocate): “[$79 list] The 2018 Paixar is all violets, wild berries and raspberry leaves, a captivating, aromatic, floral and elegant expression of old-vine Mencía from the slate soils of Dragonte (Corullón) at 700 to 950 meters in altitude. It fermented in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts and matured in 225- and 500-liter French oak barrels for 14 months. It’s all very classic, but the wine has a very modern and clean profile, a change that perhaps started with the also cooler 2016 vintage. The wine is still powerful and has energy, but there is a level of sophistication, elegance and nuance I hadn’t seen before. It’s clean and floral and has depth and nuance. But it’s on the palate and the beautifully textured mouthfeel that you see the greatness of this wine, which has all the ingredients to develop for a long time in bottle. I think this is the finest vintage of Paixar to date. 12,500 bottles produced. It was bottled in March 2020. Bravo! Drink: 2020-2030. (Jun 2020)”

94 points John Gilman (View From the Cellar): “Paixar is the old vine bottling from Bodegas Luna Beberide, with all of these bush vines planted at high elevations and at least eighty years of age! The grapes are destemmed, the wine fermented with indigenous yeasts and then aged in used French barrels and demi-muids for fourteen months prior to bottling. The 2018 delivers a fine young bouquet of dark berries, cigar smoke, a touch of anise, a superb base of dark soil tones, coffee bean, graphite and just a wisp of tree bark in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and complex, with a superb core of old vine fruit, excellent mineral drive and grip, ripe tannins and a long, well-balanced and gently peppery finish. This is outstanding Mencía. 2027-2055. (Jan/Feb 2021)”