The Mina Penélope Estate
Founded: 2014 by Verónica Santiago and Nathaniel Malagón
Region and grape source: Wines are primarily made from organically grown estate vineyards tucked into a tight fold on the valley wall of Valle de Guadalupe. They source from additional select vineyards as needed from vintage to vintage. All are organically maintained.
Winemaker: Verónica Santiago (Mexican born, studied agriculture at University of Monterrey)
Vineyard elevations and grape origins:
- Valle de Guadalupe - 1,000 ft - (Nebbiolo, Mourvedre, Montepulciano, Aglianico, Syrah, Grenache, and Sauvignon Blanc). Decomposed granite and clay soils.
Notes:
- Production is minuscule; everything is done by hand by a husband and wife team who are the definition of the passion one finds in the small growers of the region.
- Vineyard site is 15 years old and Nathaniel Malagon who tends the vineyards comes from one of the oldest grape growing families in Valle de Guadalupe.
- Winemaker Veronica Santiago is one of the most well-respected winemakers in the valley and her pallet has shown itself in blind tastings to be one of the best. The wines she and Nathaniel are making are at once elegant, informed, and remarkably rustic old world in style. These wines follow closely the natural wine making style championed in the Loire and Saone valleys and emulate closely the body compositions and flavor profiles of the wines made in this area with minimal intervention.
Total production: 9 wines, 1,300 cases
2018 Nebbiolo - Mina Penélope
Tasting Notes and Drinking Window:
A deeply impressive Nebbiolo from the iconic Mina Penelope estate. Showing textbook Nebbiolo expression, this is one of the few wines in Mexico flying under the Nebbiolo banner that can boast that it is a certified clone of Nebbiolo found in Italy’s piedmont region. Like all Nebbiolo’s of this profile, this wine wants time in the bottle to come into full focus, give this 5 years in the cellar to find its footing and be dazzled for the next 15 years. An absolutely peak expression of this grape from Mexico.
Drinking window: 2023 - 2035
Vintage:
2018
Blend:
100% Nebbiolo (piedmont clone CNR-CVT 230)
Producer:
Mina Penélope
Winemaker:
Veronica Santiago - Mexican
Vineyards:
Grapes for this wine come from a portion of the Estate vineyards planted in 2011. The site is located in Valle de Guadalupe in the ejido of San Antonio de Las Minas. The property is a flowing undulation of valleys and hillsides with the vines being planted between 900 and 975 ft in elevation, 2 miles from the Pacific. Soil is decomposed granite and clay.
Winemaking:
This is a new vintage! Notes coming soon!
Sulfites: 40 ppm
Farming:
Organic, sustainable
Alcohol:
12.9%
