Paixar
"the best Bierzo renditions of this grape [Mencia] are the most exciting wines now being made in Spain. In my opinion, the best of the best is Paixar... It is in a league with the world’s very best red wines" —
Michael Franz, Wine Review Online
Appellation
Bierzo D.O.
Grape(s)
100% Mencia, from vines averaging 80 - 100 years old
Altitude/Soil
700-900 metes / Broken slate soils in slopes exposed to the south, steeply sloping
Farming Methods
Practicing organic, Vegan
Harvest
Hand harvested into small boxes in middle of September
Production
Cluster sorted, destemmed and cold maceration prior to fermentation with native microbes
Aging
Aged for 12 months in 5,000 L Foudres and 500 L used French oak barrels
Suggested Retail Price
$80
Wine Name
Scores
Downloads
Reviews
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| 93 | Wine Review Online | If you've never heard of the Mencia grape, and are resistant to the notion that anything this obscure could make truly great wine, this wine will prove a revelation to you. It is very dark and densely concentrated, yet it has real grace as well. The fruit shows intense dark berry notes, and these are coupled with a significant but well-measured dose of smoky, spicy oak. A graphite aromatic note provides an accent that gets the wine off to a great start, and lovely mineral notes in the finish bring it to a brilliant conclusion. |  |
| 91 | Wine & Spirits Magazine | Paixar is a collaboration between Alejandro Luna of Luna Beberide winery; French vintner Gregory Perez; and Eduardo and Alberto Garcia, sons of vetran producer Mariano Garcia. They’ve crafted this 2002 from old vines in El Dragonte, one of the highest vineyards in Bierzo, and it captures the schist of the soil in its mineral aromas, blackberry flavors and dark cherry notes. Its high acidity enhances its nervous texture, but it will show best after at least five years in the cellar. | |
| 90 | Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar | Full medium bright ruby. Crunchy dark berries, violet, bonfire and cinnamon on the nose. Dense, suave and perfumed in the mouth, with sappy flavors of crushed dark berries, black cherry and violet. Finishes very long, juicy and aromatic, with chewy but fine tannins and considerable sweet oak. An excellent if rather oaky example of mencia, built to age. | |
| 90 | The Wine Advocate | opaque purple-tinged 2002 offers a superb aromatic display of blue fruits, crushed rocks, flowers, and a hint of new oak. Abundant complexity, excellent intensity, medium to full body, and a pure, long, delineated mouthfeel suggest it should be consumed over the next 7-8 years. | |
| 89 | Wine Spectator | This expressive red shows a nice mix of concentration and balance, with ripe plum and cola flavors, well-integrated tannins and intriguing notes of coffee, mineral and spice that linger on the finish. Drink now through 2010. 250 cases made. | |
| Saveur Magazine | Moderately rich, chalky, and showing a cherry flavor with white pepper underneath. Light in color but intense, with dusty tannins. From an article titled "Bierzo Rising Meet some of Spain’s best new red wines" | |
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| 95 | Wine Review Online | The 2003 Paixar has remarkable class especially considering the difficulties making wine across Europe in that hot dry year. It retains the uncanny combination of polish and power without being over-extracted or overdone. The family resemblance to the 2001 is clear. August 28, 2007 |
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| 92 | Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar | Explosively fragrant, exotic bouquet of blueberry, cherry, floral oils, cola and licorice. Firm and juicy on the palate, the dark fruit flavors energized and sharpened by mineral notes and fresh acidity. A wild blend of dark, musky fruit and earth tones and brisk minerality, with superb underlying purity and sweetness. I find this absolutely enthralling. Issue 128 - Sept/Oct ‘06 |
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| 92 | The Wine Advocate | Native yeast fermentation is utilized... the wine is purple-colored with an expressive nose of smoke, vanilla, Asian spices, pencil lead, blueberry, and black cherry. On the palate the wine reveals an elegant personality and is nearly seamless. It is nicely delineated and the finish is long. It will evolve for 2-3 years but can be enjoyed now through 2015. Issue 169 - February 2007 |
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| 96 | Wine Review Online | Paixar’s hallmark of elegance combined with intensity is readily apparent in the 2004 vin- tage. Slightly fresher than the 2003, its minerality and succulence is sustained throughout an incredible finish. Polished fine tannins lend structure without being intrusive. Despite spend- ing 16 months in new French oak barrels, this is not an ‘oaky’ wine. Beautifully integrated, the multitude of flavors slide together effortlessly and last seemingly forever. Wine Review Online - August 28, 2007 |
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| 93 | The Wine Advocate | purple-colored and super-fragrant with a bouquet of pain grille, pure mineral, scorched earth, and blueberry compote, Plush and layered, it neatly conceals enough ripe tannin to support 5-7 years of further cellaring. Drink this lengthy, pleasurable effort through 2025. The Wine Advocate - Issue 175: February 2008 |
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| 94 | The Wine Advocate | The 2005 Paixar has a similar perfume [to the 2004] but with more of a floral and less of a mineral component. (2004: super-fragrant with a bouquet of pain grille, pure mineral, scorched earth, and blueberry compote) It also has more power and length than the 2004 and should have a longer drinking window through at least 2030. Issue 175 - February ‘08 |
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| 92 | Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar | Ruby-red. Strikingly complex nose offers a seductive bouquet of smoky red and dark berries, minerals, flowers and smoked meat; this smells like a sexy, modern-styled Cote-Rotie. Vibrant raspberry and blackberry flavors are enlivened by Asian spices and tangy minerals, gaining sweetness and depth with air. Deeper cassis and blueberry notes emerge on the long, spicy finish. This is really gorgeous. Issue 139 - July/Aug ‘08 |
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| 95 | Wine Review Online | A worthy successor to the terrific 2004 Paixar and the other-worldly 2001, this wine is phenomenal in 2007. The aromas and flavors are strikingly expressive and very complex, showing alluring notes of spices, vanilla, pencil shavings, cocoa powder, woodsmoke and bright fruit recalling raspberries and cherries. Bolstered by plenty of tannin and fancy French oak, this is seriously structured but still very easy enjoy already when decanted and paired with robust foods. It shows the freshness and definition that are establishing Mencia as one of the world’s great grape varieties--at least in the view of those few individuals who are showing the foresight to invest in the few elite wines that are being made from the ancient vines and steep slopes being reclaimed by the visionaries who have brought them back from the brink of extinction. There will be a day--before long--when the word will truly be out on these wines, and on that day this price of $100 will look like a bargain. Mark my words.... March 29, 2011 - Michael Franz |
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| 92 | Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar | Vivid purple. Highly expressive bouquet evokes raspberry, candied cherry, incense and Asian spices. There’s a pinot-like clarity and sweetness to this wine that’s really compelling. Spicy, sappy and penetrating, with strong finishing punch and a very long, mineral-drenched finish. This will age on its balance. Issue 152 - Sept/Oct 2010 |
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| 99 | Wine Review Online | Paixar is two things at once: A very obscure wine in terms of the awareness of the average wine lover, but also one of the greatest wines of the entire world... dark in color and exceedingly deep and persistent in flavor, but what is unusual is that there’s no hint of over-ripeness or over-extraction… exemplary balance between fruit- and mineral-based flavors and spicy, toasty, but very subtle oak notes. |
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| 93 | Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar | Red and dark berry liqueur flavors show impressive intensity and become spicier with aeration, picking up notes of star anise and rose pastille. Stains the palate but there’s no excess weight here. Finishes spicy, pure and very long, with a whiplash of sweet spices and candied flowers. |
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| 92 CS | Wine Enthusiast | Heady, piercing aromas of boysenberry, plum, violet and graphite are dense as a fortress. The mouth on this loaded. Bierzo has a strong backbone and juicy acidity. Flavors of black cherry, blackberry, coffee and lemony oak finish with a rush of chocolate and then accents of vanilla and baked berry fruits. Best from 2015–2022. Cellar Selection |
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Paixar 2011
95 (WRO) 94 (WRO) 93 (RP) 93 (IWC) 92 (WE) 91 (WS)
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| 95 | Wine Review Online | I’ve tasted every vintage of this Paixar ever made--with the single exception of 2010--and regard it as one of Spain’s very best wines (and consequently one of the world’s best also). The 2011 rendition shows typically impressive pigment concentration, and the first aromatic impression is of toasty oak. Beneath the oak, subtle scents of anise, exotic spices and wood smoke prove quite alluring. Medium-plus body is standard for Paixar and that’s what the 2011 shows; there’s richness and substance, but no sense of heaviness. Dark berry fruit notes predominate, but there’s also a bright, fresh streak to the wine that also lends a suggestion of red fruits, and the overall impression is one of purity and precision. On the palate and in the finish, oak remains rather prominent, but the proportions of oak, fruit and tannin are just right, and those who can give this the 10 years of ageing that it deserves will get a great wine in return for their patience. If that seems like a lot to ask, remember that this is how you’d be advised to treat a $70 bottle of Bordeaux, and trust me: This will turn out to be a much better wine than anything you’ll get from Bordeaux for $70. | |
| 94 | Wine Review Online | Long-time readers of Wine Review Online will likely be aware that Paixar is among my favorite wines from anywhere in the world, so it will come as no surprise to them that I admire the release from 2011. I've tasted every vintage ever made, though 2001 was the first release, so that's no great feat. I only mention this because the wines made to this point are notably different from one another--some much firmer in their youth, others more open in fruit profile and softer in texture, with more or less wood showing overtly. With that context set, the 2011 has softened more more rapidly than I expected when I last tasted it two and a half years ago, and is now certainly among the softest and most approachable of all releases of Paixar. It has soaked up virtually all of its overt oak, and is now entirely delicious. For sheer complexity and power, it isn't quite up to the very best vintages of this wine (2001, 2004 and 2008), but it makes up for that with wonderfully generous flavors and lots of little nuances that emerge with time in the glass. For those who would like to buy an absolutely top-notch rendition of Mencía from Bierzo without waiting for years to have it open enough to be enjoyed, this would be a great choice. Naturally, it would be a matter of mere speculation for me to guess when this wine will be at its absolute apogee, and I've already admitted that it has opened more quickly than I expected. However, I can say with certainty that it will last for years, based on the fact that I've never tasted a single bottle of Paixar from any vintage (including the very great 2001) that has shown any signs of cracking up. | |
| 93 | The Wine Advocate | The 2011 Paixar is produced with old-vine Mencía grapes from south-facing slopes at high altitude on slate soils in the village of Dragonte fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged for 22 months in French oak barrels. It has an oaky nose, as is the norm with this wine in its infancy, but you need to read beyond that as there is great fruit in there. It is concentrated with perfectly ripe flavors, ultra-fine tannins and very good balance and harmony to age, perhaps not for as long as other fresher vintages would, but at least for a decade. It's balsamic with herbs, chocolate and cigar ash over the core of ripe damsons and black cherries. Patience will pay back. Some 8,000 bottles were produced. | |
| 93 | Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar | Inky ruby. Explosive, exotically perfumed aromas of red and dark berry preserves, licorice, Indian spices and incense are brightened by a zesty mineral nuance. Sappy and penetrating, displaying excellent clarity to its juicy black raspberry and blueberry flavors; tangy acidity contributes spine. Suave and seamless in texture, finishing with outstanding vivacity and a whisper of tannins. | |
| 92 | Wine Enthusiast | Ripe, jammy raspberry and blackberry aromas come with pastry notes and a strong blast of woodspice. This strapping wine has staunch tannins and hard-pushing acidity. Flavors of toast, blackberry and pepper lean toward the dark side, while the wine’s handsome finish is secure in structure, balance and length. Drink through 2020. | |
| 91 | Wine Spectator | The cherry, berry and vanilla flavors are bright and juicy in this fresh red, with light, firm tannins and racy acidity. The structure is light but tensile, imparting drive and intensity. Drink now through 2022. | |
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| 94 | International Wine Review | The 2015 Paixar is 100% Mencia and is sourced from many small, high elevation bush-vines. Semi opaque in color, it has a perfumed nose of black raspberry with a slight charred note. Refined on the palate with a silky feel and bright acidity. Aged 18 months in new French oak barrels. "Spanish Wines of Value and Quality" - June 20, 2019 |
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| 93 | The Wine Advocate | After many vintages, the 2015 Paixar is now a brand of Luna Beberide. 2015 is a ripe vintage and the wine shows it in its heady and ripe nose, quite aromatic, expressive if very obviously young. This has always been a ripe, powerful and concentrated red, often generously oaked, designed for the long haul. The grapes come from the village of Dragonte, at high altitude and with slate-based soils that provide a texture and wide minerality to the wines. The palate revealed abundant, slightly dusty tannins that might need some more time in bottle and/or powerful food. 8,000 bottles produced. Drink Date 2018 - 2022
Issue 232, August 2017 |
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| 93 | View from the Cellar | The Paixar bottling from this fine winery is made from very old, bush vines, all in excess of eighty years of age and planted on pure slate, which is far more typical in Ribeira Sacra than it is in Bierzo. The wine is raised entirely in new French oak, but I noted that the 2015 version spent twenty months in cask, rather than the twenty-two months of the 2013 version I reported on last year. The 2015 Paixar Mencía is an outstanding young wine, with the new oak beautifully integrated into the fruit and soil elements here. The bouquet wafts from the glass in a very refined constellation of cassis, pomegranate, espresso, licorice, great minerality, a touch of tree bark, cigar smoke and a very well done framing of cedary oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and impressively transparent, with a good core, excellent backend mineral drive, ripe tannins and a long, youthful, complex and tangy finish. This needs at least a couple of years in the cellar to start to blossom and more completely absorb its new wood, but it is very well balanced and will be a superb bottle with a bit of patience. 2021-2050.
Issue #75 – May/June 2018 |
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| 93 | Vinous Media | Lurid ruby. Highly perfumed and vibrant on the nose, displaying heady dark berry, pot-pourri scents and a smoky mineral overtone. In a rich but elegant style, offering appealingly sweet black raspberry, cherry-cola and spicecake flavors given spine and lift by a core juicy acidity. Shows outstanding depth as well as delicacy, and finishes with strong, floral-, mineral-driven persistence and silky tannins that come on late. (Aged for 22 months in new French oak barrels.)
Drink 2019-2026 Spain’s Northern Regions Keep it Cool – March 2019 |
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| 96 | Wine Review Online | Longtime readers of WRO might already be aware of my utter adoration of this wine in almost every vintage, and now that the terrific 2016 is available, you can add another vintage to the list of fantastic Paixar bottlings stretching back to the initial release from 2001. The 2016 leans a bit more toward the sleek, fresh and elegant side of the Paixar spectrum than did the 2015, but with that noted, nobody could fail to appreciate the depth and length of the flavors offered by the 2016 (thanks, no doubt, to the old vines that have always been the source for this wine). The oak is especially well integrated in this vintage, which will make it tempting early on, but the smart money will hold onto this for another five years before cracking into it. Combining the usually divergent virtues of power and intricacy, this is a complete wine of superb quality. Michael Franz - October 29, 2019 |
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| 95 | The Wine Advocate | The brooding and perfumed 2016 Paixar is a Mencía built to last, in what seems one of its freshest and more balanced vintages. This is produced with the grapes from high-altitude vineyards on slate soils, quite different from the majority of other vineyards worked by Luna Beberide. This cuvée is a joint venture with Alberto and Eduardo García from the Mauro winery in the Duero zone.
There is concentration with great elegance; the oak is still there but in the process of being absorbed by the wine (and feels less obvious than in earlier vintages), and there is great citrus freshness (think blood oranges) and balance in the palate. This is spicy and peppery and can surely be drunk now with powerful food, but it should develop further complexity with more time in bottle. 8,000 bottles were filled in November 2018. Drink Date 2020 - 2030 Issue 241; February 28, 2019 |
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| 94 | Vinous Media | Bright, violet color. Sexy, deeply perfumed blackberry, cola, floral oil and incense aromas pick up a smoky mineral quality as the wine opens up. Supple, seamless and alluringly sweet, offering palate-staining black/blue fruit liqueur flavors that are complemented by suggestions of vanilla, mocha and five-spice powder. Densely packed yet lively as well, finishing with outstanding clarity and smooth, harmonious tannins. (Aged for 16 months in new French oak barrels.)
Drink 2022-2030 Spain’s Northern Regions Keep it Cool – March 2019 |
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| 93+ | View from the Cellar | Paixar is, of course, the top of the line bottling from Luna Beberide, hailing from vines that are all in excess of eighty years of age, with most of these old vines stand alone, bush vines, planted at the highest elevations in the bodegas’ vineyard patrimony. It undergoes a bit of a cold soak” prior to the start of fermentation and its elevage is similar to the Art bottling, though it spends a couple more months in cask. The 2016 Paixar comes in at fourteen percent octane and offers up a super bouquet of sweet dark berries, pomegranate, licorice, cigar smoke, a very complex base of soil, tree bark and a gentle foundation of new oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and nascently complex, with great mineral drive and core, tangy acids, fine focus and grip, buried, fine-grained tannins and a long, vibrant and complex finish. This is really serious juice and impressively light on its feet, given how much depth and dimension are here. 2024-2050. Issue # 85 - January/February 2020 |
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| 95 | Vinous Media | Saturated violet. A complex, expansive bouquet evokes spice- and mineral- accented cherry, black currant, mulberry and licorice, along with hints of incense and pungent flowers. Stains the palate with concentrated black and blue fruit, floral pastille and exotic spice flavors sweetened by a late touch of vanilla. Delivers a compelling blend of richness and energy and finishes strikingly long and gently chewy, with reverberating blue fruit and mineral notes and slowly building tannins. Raised in new 500-liter and used 225-liter French oak barrels. 2023 – 2033 Josh Raynolds – June 17, 2021 Atlantic Spain: It’s Always About the Weather… |
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| 94 | The Wine Advocate | Paixar was a revelation, one of the first modern Bierzos, produced with the García family from Mauro. I tasted two vintages of this wine, which has come a long way. The riper and headier 2017 Paixar is explosive and hedonistic, truly remarkable for a very complex year in the region. But the palate has purity of flavors and vibrant fruit, and the oak feels integrated like never before. It's a much more floral and elegant version of this wine that keeps the essence of the high-altitude old vineyards on slate soils in the village of Dragonte. I think this is a real triumph over the conditions of the year. It matured in 225- and 500-liter oak barrels for 15 months, but the oak is completely integrated. 12,500 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2019. Issue #249 - June 2020 |
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| 97 | Wine Review Online | The 2018 release is an awesome rendition of Paixar, if different from many of its predecessors in showing very open bright fruit and exceptional overall freshness. Floral aromatic topnotes are both captivating and exciting when enjoyed while beholding the wine’s very deep pigmentation, as the combination of aromatic charm and muscular-looking fruit offers an initial impression of a wine promising exceptional dimension and complexity. That promise is fulfilled entirely on the palate, which offers flavors recalling black and red fruit tones as well as a blue fruit note that emerges as the wine opens in the glass. The wood component is less evident in this vintage than in some earlier ones (I’ve tasted almost every release going back to this wine’s debut from the 2001 vintage), but it isn’t so easy to determine whether that’s because the toast level in the large casks was lower, or the wine removed earlier, or whether the fruit was just more absorptive in 2018. Be that as it may, the result is a wonderful combination of prettiness and power. The wine’s initial brightness and freshness is a bit misleading even after the wine has been well aerated, as there’s more physical density than was immediately apparent; the tears in a high-quality glass indicate the presence of plenty of glycerol, and though the wine softens with additional aeration, it actually seems to take on a bit of weight rather than lightening up as it loosens up. This is a very stylish wine that will be fascinating to watch over the years to come, but one that would be a terrific choice for current use in persuading a friend who doesn’t know about Mencía or this variety’s greatness when derived from well-tended old vines and crafted by an outstanding producer. Michael Franz - Issue: December 1, 2020 |
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| 96 | The Wine Advocate | The 2018 Paixar is all violets, wild berries and raspberry leaves, a captivating, aromatic, floral and elegant expression of old-vine Mencía from the slate soils of Dragonte (Corullón) at 700 to 950 meters in altitude. It fermented in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts and matured in 225- and 500-liter French oak barrels for 14 months. It's all very classic, but the wine has a very modern and clean profile, a change that perhaps started with the also cooler 2016 vintage. The wine is still powerful and has energy, but there is a level of sophistication, elegance and nuance I hadn't seen before. It's clean and floral and has depth and nuance. But it's on the palate and the beautifully textured mouthfeel that you see the greatness of this wine, which has all the ingredients to develop for a long time in bottle. I think this is the finest vintage of Paixar to date. 12,500 bottles produced. It was bottled in March 2020. Bravo! Issue #249 - June 2020 |
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| 95 | International Wine Review | 100% Mencía from vines averaging 80 years old. Opaque ruby red. Exotic perfume of violets and berries, intricate and complex. Silky on the attack and beautifully refined but dense on the palate showing layers of red and black fruit with a lovely earthy element and a long finish. From slate soils of Corullón. Captivating. IIssue #84 - March/April 2021 |
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| 94 | View from the Cellar | Paixar is the old vine bottling from Bodegas Luna Beberide, with all of these bush vines planted at high elevations and at least eighty years of age! The grapes are destemmed, the wine fermented with indigenous yeasts and then aged in used French barrels and demi-muids for fourteen months prior to bottling. The 2018 delivers a fine young bouquet of dark berries, cigar smoke, a touch of anise, a superb base of dark soil tones, coffee bean, graphite and just a wisp of tree bark in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and complex, with a superb core of old vine fruit, excellent mineral drive and grip, ripe tannins and a long, well balanced and gently peppery finish. This is outstanding Mencia. 2027-2055+. John Gilman - Issue #91 / February 2021 |
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| 96 | The Wine Advocate | The 2020 Paixar is the one wine from the portfolio that is completely different from the others and comes from high-altitude vineyards in the zone of Dragonte on slate soils. In 2020 and 2021 they used the whole field blend—reds and around 5% white grapes, which might have given it an extra spark of acidity. It matured in 5,000-liter oak vat and 500-liter oak barrels. It has a perfumed nose, elegant and floral, with good ripeness but without excess. It's finely textured with a chalky thread and great balance. It finishes long and dry. This is truly superb and should evolve nicely in bottle. It's now Vino de Paraje 'A Serra' in Dragonte, a parish of Corullón. 8,000 bottles were filled in November 2021. 2023-2032. Luis Gutiérrez – January 2022 |
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| 94+ | View from the Cellar | The Paixar bottling is Luna Beberide’s oldest vine cuvée, as these vines are all between eighty and one hundred years of age, planted on crumbling slate soils on a steep, south-facing hillside. If memory serves me correctly, this used to see some new oak during its elevage, but these days it is raised all in one wine casks and used foudres. The 2020 Paixar is nicely ripe at 13.5 percent octane and delivers a beautifully refined bouquet of sweet dark berries, cassis, pomegranate, tree bark, graphite, a beautiful base of slate, a bit of smoked meats, black tea, discreet botanicals and a gentle framing of cedary oak from the one-used barrels. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and youthfully structured, with a great core of fruit, firm, chewy
tannins, excellent focus and grip and a long, elegant, balanced and extremely promising finish. Even though this is raised all in used wood, it still needs some bottle aging to integrate the oak completely here. Once it is ready to drink, it is going to be a great wine. 2033-2080+. John Gilman – Issue 98 March/April 2022 |
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| 94 | Wine Review Online | They say that confession is good for the soul, so I should acknowledge that this is among my favorite wines in the world (I’d bet that my cellar holds more of it than anyone in the USA aside from the importer), and I have quite a soft spot for the family behind the wine. With that caveat noted, the 2020 Paixar is delicious but different than many earlier releases going back to the first vintage in 2001, showing softer texture, less overt wood even at this early stage in its development, and a more approachable character – if less seemingly age-ability. All of this is good news for those who don’t have wine cellars or sufficient patience to let wines age for 7 to 10 years from the vintage, which is when Paixar is usually hitting its stride. It is possible that I’m just catching this at in a phase when it is “open” and showy, which it is — in both aroma and flavor. Whereas this was formerly raised in just a few 500-liter new, French oak barrels, the tech sheet for this vintage indicates aging of 12 months in 5,000 liter Foudres and used — not new — 500 liter casks. Not the most powerful Paixar ever released, but a very pretty one that may hold even more potential than it is showing right now. One indication of potential is that my bottle held up extremely well over 24 hours after being opened initially, so this may have even more staying power than it is showing at this time. Michael Franz - April 5, 2022 |
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| 97 | The Wine Advocate | The vino de paraje from A Serra in Dragonte 2021 Paixar is as good as ever, with the austerity of the slate slopes and the old vines that deliver low yields of concentrated and characterful grapes. It has a moderate 13.5% alcohol and a very fresh sensation on the palate beyond analysis. The vineyards are in the process to obtain organic certification. 6,500 bottles produced. This is one of the most elegant vintages for this wine.The Luna Beberide family has been producing modern Bierzo wines since 1988. They work over 50 hectares of vineyards and bottle around 150,000 bottles per year. Paixar was one of the first icons from Bierzo. Luis Gutierrez – The Wine Advocate August 10, 2023 |
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| 95 | Wine Review Online | I have been fortunate to taste and review almost every vintage of Paixar since the first release from the 2021 vintage. Long-time readers of Wine Review Online know that I love this wine, and I love it still, but for different reasons than in some great past vintages such as, say 2004 — which may be my favorite of all. The wine has become lighter in sheer weight, with less overt wood, and both of these will be changes for the better in the view of many tasters. However, this very old vine site at high elevation in the little village of Dragonte always seems to provide abundant acidity, so the richer, riper vintages have always been successful. Be that as it may, my job is not to quibble over stylistic decisions but to evaluate wines as they result from whatever the winemaker has decided, and this is certainly a delicious and very interesting wine. Showing a bright character in a medium-bodied profile, this offers up a broad range of aromas and flavors based on fruit tones both red and black, with specific notes recalling red cherries and raspberries, ripe but still tart cranberries, black Bing cherries, and boysenberries (which grow all over my neighborhood — I’m not making this up). The overall balance of fruit, acidity, oak spice, and tannin is indisputably outstanding. Michael Franz – September 26, 2023 |
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| 95 | View from the Cellar | As I have mentioned in the past, Paixar is Luna Beberide’s oldest vine cuvée, with these Mencía vines ranging from eighty-five to one hundred years of age! The vineyard is a south-facing hillside of weathered slate and the wine is now raised entirely in one wine casks during its élevage. The 2021 Paixar is a superb wine in the making, delivering a complex aromatic constellation of black raspberries, graphite, pomegranate, tree bark, grilled meats, a gorgeous base of slate minerality, espresso, woodsmoke and a touch of cedary oak. On the palate the wine is deep, fullbodied and very elegant on the attack, with a superb core of black fruit, impressive transparency and grip, ripe, fine-grained tannins and impeccable balance on the long, focused and complex finish. This is so well-balanced that it is not hard to drink today, but in reality, this is still a young wine and it is infanticide to even contemplate drinking it now, as there is so much more to unfold here with some extended cellaring. This may well be the finest young wine I have yet tasted from Luna Beberide, and I have been a fan of this fine Bierzo estate for a decade now! 2031-2075+. John Gilman - Issue #105 May/June 2023. |
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