Vitícole Mentridana Cantos del Diablo 2020 - 75cl
Cantos del Diablo is the wine that made people take Méntrida seriously. Daniel Gómez Jiménez-Landi — co-founder of the cult Comando G project — makes it from a single north-facing parcel of just 0.35 hectares, Garnacha planted in the 1960s at around 900 metres on the edge of the Sierra de Gredos. In 2020 that plot gave 1,730 bottles. Not a wine you trip over.
Landi split his Méntrida vineyards into their own bodega, Vitícola Mentridana, to keep this kind of site-specific work distinct. The soil is granite gone sandy and silty, with barely any clay — exactly the sort of poor, free-draining ground that turns Garnacha delicate and red-fruited rather than jammy. The fruit comes in as whole clusters and gets a slow, gentle infusion, almost no extraction, then rests in large neutral vessels.
The result has very little flesh and enormous tension. Bright spiced red cherry and strawberry leap out first, then kirsch, pomegranate and dried cranberry, with black pepper, rosemary and a savoury, almost tomato-skin umami underneath. It is reductive and chalky, high-toned, with a cool herbal lift that reads more like fine Pinot or Cru Beaujolais than a Spanish Garnacha. Structure comes from fine chalky tannin and acidity, not weight.
Give it air, or hold it — this rewards five to ten years in the cellar. Open it for someone who chases mountain Garnacha and wants to see how far the grape can go.
How to Serve
Serve cool, 14 to 15°C — treat it like a delicate red, not a warm-climate one. Decant 30 to 45 minutes to ease the reductive edge. A Burgundy glass gathers the perfume.
Where to Drink It
Noble Rot for a room that reveres this style. Planque in Haggerston for its grower-focused list. Bright in Hackney, which pours mountain Garnacha with real conviction.
Food Pairings
Roast partridge or quail suits its delicacy. I would pour it with grilled lamb cutlets scented with rosemary — the wine's herbal, peppery side meets them head-on.
