Oliver’s Taranga Mencia 2022
- 92
- $35
- Drink by: 2022-2025
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Mencìa is a variety that comes from north west Spain and the Wright family of Oliver’s Tauranga are proving it can flourish in McLaren Vale. There’s a lot going on here – initially aromas are of violets, black cherries and blackberries. With time in the glass it becomes more mineral and savoury with beetroot leaves, and Dutch salted licorice.
It’s rich with a lick of menthol and flavours of dripping-ripe blood plums. Beetroot flavours show up again but this time slowly roasted and caramelised. There’s a hint of white pepper and the dried herbs of a carefully layered Bouquet Garni. Pencil-shaving tannins continue the savoury finish.
Drink with roasted eppglant and capsicum finished with silky hommus and toasted sesame.
Nicole loves wine. So much so that she gave up a successful career in Pharmacy, perfected her spitting technique, and moved from sunny Queensland to the wine-drenched laneways of Melbourne. Stints in hospitality, wineries, retail, sales and marketing filled the next few years while Nicole built her knowledge and searched for the right path. She completed the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) Diploma in 2016 and became a certified WSET Educator the following year. She now juggles a number of roles including teaching people about wine, curating wines lists for restaurants and bars, judging in Australian wine shows and, of course, writing. In 2016 she won the Negociants Working With Wine writing award and has since contributed to Gourmet Traveller WINE, Halliday Wine Companion Magazine and Nourish Magazine.
