The Vena Cava Estate
- Vena Cava is a boutique winery founded in 2005 by Phil and Eileen Gregory under the principles of passion and quality over quantity. While they didn’t start with the intention of making “natural” wines, the more they learned the more this seemed the only interesting route forward. Today they are among the standouts of wineries in Mexico that are making exceptional wines in a “natural” style. While the estate makes wines that are strictly natural and others that are organic and noninterventionist (yet still apply some conventional techniques), we offer only their purely natural wines.
- All Vena Cava wines that have “Crystal Ship" or“Natural” as part of the name are made with organic grapes, fermented with native yeast, see no corrections, fining or additives and are bottled unfiltered with only a minimal amount of sulfites.
- While Vena Cava has its own estate vineyards, they have focused their business model on creating deep relationships with the best growers and the best vineyard sites such that, today, only 10% of their wines come from their estate owned grapes.
Vineyard locations, elevations and grape varieties –
- In addition to their 9.8 acres of estate vineyards located next to the winery in Valle de Guadalupe, they source their grapes from a number of select sites in Valle de Ojos Negros, Valle de San Vicente and Valle de Santo Tomás. All are organically farmed.
Total production: 10 regular wines and 10 “experimental” wines that change occasionally from vintage to vintage, 2,000 cases
2019 Phil's Blend - Vena Cava
Tasting Notes and Drinking Window:
Working your way up the ladder of intensity and boldness in the Vena Cava lineup, you find at the zenith Phil’s blend and as it is a blend of equal parts Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Nebbiolo, it should not be a surprise. The nose is full of black pepper, rose petals, tar, and a medley of dark and red fruits whose mysterious character is the perfect preparation for what’s to come. In the mouth, the full body leads you through a tour of the umbrageous side of the flavor world with dark fruits, tobacco, dark chocolate, espresso, and black cherry dominating. Tannin management is impressive considering the blend but still present and indicates it will age nicely for more than a decade.
2019 was a consideribly leaner year, and Phil's response was to make less wine but higher quality. You'll see the alc % having gone down by another degree on this vintage compaired to last and it really makes the wine sing.
200 cases made
Drinking window: upon release (with a decant) – 15 years
Vintage:
2019
Blend:
34% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Syrah, 32% Nebbiolo
Producer:
Vena Cava
Winemaker:
Phil Gregory - British lives in Mexico
Vineyards:
Vena Cava’s wines come from select sites in Valle de Guadalupe, Valle de San Vicente and Valle de Santo Tomás. Because of their approach to making several individual fermentations of each variety and blending just before barrel aging, specific site information is not available.
Winemaking:
All of Vena Cava’s grapes are fermented separately in two lots – half French oak barrels and half flexi tank. This gives them a variety of options when it comes time to blend in the process of making the final wine. After blending this wine was aged in 3rd use barrels for 12 months before bottling.
Sulfites: 35 ppm
Farming:
Organic, sustainable
Alcohol:
12.4%
