At Bodegas Menade, we have wanted to add further value to our philosophy by changing the design of the labels of our wines. These labels symbolise our respect for our eco-system and environment, as well as our profound love of the land.
We would like to express the natural aspects of our project. This project is changing constantly and emphasises, at the same time, the natural aspects of our wines. We have chosen four animals represented by Carlos Mena´s design, which we can easily find in our vineyards at any given time of year. These four little creatures represent the Castillian landscape and are also important for maintaining the balance in our eco-system.
We have also wanted to include the origin of our grapes, with which we make our wines, on our back labels. This includes the unique aspects of our vineyard estates. We ferment the different plots separately, as we would like our wines to express the soils of the area, thus resulting in a wide range of aromas.
The first of them is the snail for this natural Verdejo, Nosso. It is a snapshot of the earth, as well as of our vineyards.
For our wine, Menade Verdejo, we have chosen a hare, an ancient inhabitant of the vineyards. This animal is alive, refreshing, astute and entertaining… all adjectives which remind us of this, our flagship wine.
The whippet is our chosen image for Menade Sauvignon, elegant, slim and distiguished.
Dulce Menade is a typical Sauvignon Blanc varietal wine, pleasing, affable, just like the hedgehog, which is the animal we have chosen for this wine. They do, however, have a certain personality of their own and the resulting wine is lively, with good acidity.
La Misión
Made with Verdeja, La Misión comes from 100 year old vines planted in vineyards with mainly sandy soils. Once alcoholic fermentation starts spontaneously in stainless steel tanks using wild yeasts, the wine finishes fermenting and is partly aged in 500 litre French oak barrels. The other part is aged in tanks or pipes of 5,000 and 10,000 litres and also in ‘tinajas’ (traditional clay fermenting vessels) of different sizes made with clay sourced in part from the Menade vineyards. This has been a return to the earth and to our origins. After 10 months aproximately of ageing, La Misión is bottled and rests for a minimun of two years in bottle.
The Bodegas Menade project started in 2005. Wine, however, has been flowing through the veins of the Sanz brothers for six generations. Brothers, Marco and Richard Sanz made wine 35 years ago with grapes sourced from some 100 year old vineyards planted in Pollos, a family property. Virtually from the start, they could see that the Verdejo from this estate was different from other Verdejo grapes.
Eight years ago, they acquired the family vineyards and decided to start to re-graft all their vineyards entirely with ‘Verdeja’ as it was known locally, using Masal selection. This ‘Verdeja’ displays distinctive morphological traits: the berries are smaller, the bunches more oval in shape and it is more resistant to diseases such as botrytis thanks to its thicker skin. Its aromas are the true expression of Verdejo. They tend to be more rustic, but at the same time more genuine. Analytical parameters reveal acidity levels are higher and the grapes are more concentrated.
From day one, Menade’s philosophy has been based on a more natural approach to wine growing. The winery’s accumulated experience over the years has led to a more authentic way of growing grapes, where the final wine’s personality is key.
