Born in Bordeaux, Grégory Pérez worked at Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste and Château Cos d'Estournel before heeding the advice of his friends and moving to Spain. He settled in Bierzo, where he farms vineyards in Espadillo, a hamlet in the village of Arganza. In this mountainous area, the soil is mainly decomposed slate with some clay.
It is an isolated area where vine growing is marginal and which he discovered thanks to his passion for motorcycling. The grapes were used for personal consumption or sold to the cooperative, but the low prices led to the uprooting of many plots to be replaced by pine trees.
Gregory Pérez has painstakingly acquired most of them, even reclaiming some that had been turned into woodland. He now owns 12 hectares, of which 5.5 are vineyards, and has become virtually the only player in the area. All the vines are planted on steep slopes at over 600m elevation. Exposure to the midday sun and good aeration are key issues for him.
In recent years he has started trellising his vineyards, which allows him to work more efficiently. He now prefers long pruning to prevent frost damage (he lost his entire harvest in 2017). He also owns a second vineyard in Arganza, comprising seven hectares of Godello and two of Mencía.
His wines are based on eight key principles: knowledge of the soil, biodiversity preservation, indigenous grape varieties, no aggressive treatments, no herbicides, low yields, grape selection in the vineyard and traditional winemaking and ageing. He has gradually incorporated Garnacha Tintorera (Alicante Bouschet) into his Mencia reds, most of which are fermented with varying amounts of whole bunches. He works with a variety of fermentation and ageing vessels, from stainless steel tanks to oak vats, foudres and barrels. He also pioneered the use of tinajas (earthenware jars) in Bierzo. Today he is the García (Mauro) family's man in the region. While he helps them with their new Valeyo, the García family has taken a stake in Gregory's wine business.
The winery is in San Juan de Carracedo. The range of wines has expanded considerably from the original white and red Mengoba. With 60,0000 bottles against 40,000, the whites outstrip the reds.
The range starts with the entry-level Brezo. The grapes come from various villages in the area and there are two versions: white (Godello and 10% Dona Blanca, 40,000 bottles, €10) and red (Mencía and a touch of Alicante Bouschet, 37,000 bottles, €9.5). Both wines are excellent value.
The Mengoba range includes a Godello on its lees (5,000 bottles, €18), aged for 12 months in large wooden vats, and two reds with a marked influence from the slate soils at over 700 m elevation: Mengoba Mencía Alicante Bouschet (€18, 13,000 bottles) and Mengoba Mencía de Espanillo (3,000 bottles, €25).
Mengoba La Vigne de El Rebolón (around €43, 1,200 bottles) comes from two plots at 750m and is aged in 600-litre barrels for 12-13 months. All the varieties (Mencía, Garnacha Tintorera and Godello) are picked at the same time and co-fermented with whole bunches, resulting in the most aerial and elegant red in the range.
Among the reds, Mengoba Estaladiña (€40, less than 1,000 bottles) also stands out. Made from an ancient variety recently recovered in the area, Gregory claims that egg-shaped concrete is the perfect vessel for ageing.
There are also a couple of experimental whites: Mengoba Tinajas, a striking orange wine aged in amphorae, and Mengoba Las Botas, another southern-inspired white aged in butts that previously contained sherry. His top white is La Grande Cuvée (€72, less than 1,000 bottles). Grapes are sourced from 70+-year-old Godello vines spread across his old vineyards in Espanillo and aged in 600-litre oak barrels for four years.
A distinctive element of his wines is the use of recyclable polymer stoppers, identical to those used by Domaine Ponsot in Burgundy.
