Along the banks of the Cua river, a family-run cooperative of more than 250 individual holdings coalesced in the 1980s. While winemakers from Priorat flew in and brought fame and attention to the Bierzo region with their heavy-handed, oaky, and expensive Mencias, the women of Ribas del Cua continued making a simple, unadorned yet totally delicious Mencia without fanfare. A new generation of winemakers returned to Bierzo in the 2000s and climbed high into the hills to find vineyards for a fresher and more elegant sort of Mencia, all the while Ribas del Cua remained by the banks of the river, making this unctuous, yet elegant and omplex wine with just a hint of oak. On the nose, this wine offers plump black cherry, black raspberry, smoky basaltic soil, burnt orange peel, fig, cinnamon, and iron rich clay. The palate is full bodied,  brimming with dark berry fruit, touches of Cara Cara orange, fig, and earth that linger through the finish. An astonishingly good value red and a great weekday wine for all sorts of weeknight cheese-dusted pastas, takeout pizza, or spicy potato dishes.