Mencía, increasingly valued red grape variety grown so widely in north-west Spain that plantings totalled 8,601 ha/21,244, notably in bierzo, ribeira sacra, and valdeorras (see map under spain). dna profiling laid to rest the once-popular theory that Mencía and Cabernet Franc were related, but more recently showed that the variety called jaen, or Jaen du Dão, is Mencía. In addition, the rediscovery by young winemakers of old, low-yielding hillside plots of Mencía has dispelled the notion that this variety necessarily produces light reds since wines of great concentration and complexity have emerged from these forgotten vineyards on deep schists and produced a priorat-like revolution in the region. It was the fertile plains on which Mencía was replanted after phylloxera, with resulting high yields, that gave the variety its reputation for dilution.
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