90% Mencia, 10% Garnacha - Among the world’s most ambitious yet intimate wine estates (to which one usually arrives by boat), Finca Míllara is the dream of Fernando de Santiago, who fell in love with the emerging, dramatic and nearly inaccessible Ribeira Sacra wine district, a historically significant wine region that had been virtually abandoned. In 2000, he began purchasing parcels in the uninhabited hamlet of A Míllara overlooking the Miño, eventually acquiring the entire township and its surrounding slopes from hundreds of proprietary descendants. Reclaiming and restructuring the vineyard terraces A Míllara itself, following strict guidelines to maintain original architecture, incorporated the modern winemaking and aging facility. This vineyard site is surrounded by oak forests and cork trees located at the highest part of the hill at over 1300 feet above sea level. The soil here is deeper and dominated by slate. Fermentation occurs with 50% destemmed fruit and 50% whole cluster. Malolactic fermentation takes place in 6500 liter oak foudres and additionally aged for 12 months in French oak. Fermentation with native yeasts. -90 Points W&S