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
2021 Crystal Ship Mourvèdre - Vena Cava
Tasting Notes and Drinking Window:
Another stunning small batch (34 cases made!) natural wine from one of Mexico’s first wineries to make wine with native yeast, no fining or filtration and no sulfites at any point in the process. Every year they do one extremely small experiment and this year it was the first 100% Mourvedre harvest from their organically farmed estate vineyards in Valle de Guadalupe. Reading like a top-flight Fleurie on the nose and drinking in the same vein, this is a singing Beaujolais look-alike, despite its different grape variety and origin. Floral and fresh bright red berry notes on the nose precede a mouthful of crunchy red fruits layered in generous spices that lie over deeper brooding tones. A delight to witness, this is a fantastic natural red from Mexico.
Only 34 cases made!
Drinking window: upon release - 7 years
Vintage:
2021
Blend:
100% Grenache
Producer:
Vena Cava
Winemaker:
Phil Gregory - British lives in Mexico
Vineyards:
Valle de Guadalupe – Organically farmed estate vineyards planted in 2012 at an elevation of 950 ft in clay soils with some decomposed granite.
Winemaking:
Harvested by hand in small batches to prevent bruising and fermented in stainless steel tanks on ambient yeasts. Left to steel in the tank for 9 months before bottling unfined and unfiltered.
Sulfites: no sulfites are added at any point during the process.
Farming:
Organic, natural, sustainable
Alcohol:
11.3%
