Los Carismáticos 2021 pays tribute to one of the most underrated Galician varieties to date, the merenzao. A commitment to the recovery of those wines described by locals as the most flavorful and delicate of the D.O. Valdeorras.
Consumption features
Serving temperature
General features
Type of wine
Region
Grape variety
100% Merenzao
Type of bottle
Burgundy Bottle
Capacity (cl)
75
Alcohol content (% vol.)
13
General Information
Los Carismáticos 2021 is a unique red wine crafted by Virgen de Galir, a winery located along the Camino de Santiago, within the D.O. Valdeorras. A wine deeply rooted in the history of these undiscovered landscapes situated on the banks of the Bibei River. Even its name, Los Carismáticos, pays tribute to the religious order that managed the sanctuary of As Ermitas, which undoubtedly contributed to the development and preservation of the vineyards in the area.
Since its foundation in 2002, Virgen del Galir has been driving a project to recover native grape varieties, including merenzao, a very rare red grape that has been disappearing in the region due to its low yields, but which the elders of the area remember as the origin of the most flavorful wines.
With a meticulous and artisanal production process, Los Carismáticos 2021 (D.O. Valdeorras) is a tribute to this forgotten variety. After the manual harvest of merenzao grapes, the clusters, including stems, ferment in 500-liter oak barrels with their own yeasts. The result is a natural wine, minimally intervened, not exuberant, and more delicate than the red wines typically produced in the region.
The winery
The origin of the winery Virgen del Galir (2002) is entirely family-based: it was founded by José Barros García who, together with his son David, has championed for years the magic of Valdeorras wines, both those made from godello and the -rarer- reds from mencía. The excellent work of the Barros family (in 2009 Robert Parker included one of their godellos in the top 100 best Spanish white wines under €25 and awarded it 90 points) caught the attention of the CVNE Group, which acquired the winery in 2017 with the aim of giving it the definitive push towards the pinnacle of Galician wines.
The Virgen del Galir winery is located in Éntoma, in O Barco de Valdeorras, in the eastern part of the province of Ourense. There it has 40 hectares of vineyards planted on terraces at over 600 m altitude, some of them old and inherited from previous generations of the Barros family.