2019 Raul Pérez La Vizcaína El Rapolao

Raúl Pérez is without a doubt the most mediatized winemaker in all of Spain at the moment. However, his wines are almost impossible to find! Everyone talks about it, but few have tasted it. Raúl is present in countless appellations and regions, not only in Spain, but also in South Africa, Portugal, South America. The common thread in his work is the recovery of vieilles vignes from autochthonous grape varieties and the making of authentic wines with a lot of character and personality. Or to put it in his own words: 'I'd rather make an undrinkably bad Galician wine, but at least let it be a Galician wine.' He has therefore already vinified dozens of wines in countless different regions (mostly in the northwest of Spain, and also beyond), but which have never been marketed. He tests, he tries, and he fails very often. This way of working naturally gives him a lot of experience, with which he is later able to get the most out of one grape variety or one region.

Today he makes or contributes to more than 80 wines. In the end, he has also more or less settled down by renovating two mini bodegas of his own: one in the Tierra de León region, in the village of Valdevimbre, and another in his native region of Bierzo, where he has his home in the village of Salas de los Barrios. makes his own Ultreias, the absolute essence of Mencía. Raúl always works as pure as possible. He uses the minimum of SO2.

La Vizcaína is a project by Raul Pérez in which he classifies the wines according to origin with regard to sun orientation, terroir, etc. La Vizcaína is the name the inhabitants of Valtuille gave to Raul's father, who was an oenologist and died at a young age. In this project, Raul is assisted by his cousin and oenologist Cesar Marquez. The Lomas de Valtuille, Las Gundiñas is a 100% Mencia. It is a biodynamic wine. No temperature control during fermentation. During vinification, the principles of gravity are applied, without pumping and with as few interventions as possible to get the wine as pure, clean and expressive as possible in the bottle. Fermentation and maceration in 5000 liter casks. 10 months aging in French oak barrels of the 2nd year.

The Raul Pérez La Vizcaína El Rapolao is deep in color and brilliantly clear. The first contact is fruity with northern character traits. No trace of the cask aging, nor of the cracks. Youthful fragrance palette. Rich filling and cohesive. Mencia in its pure and complex form with a continental backbone and no trace of cask aging. 95/100 Parker

Our regular customers know that we are a big fan of the wines from this region made from Mencia (or the white Godello) such as the wines from Perez and Val de Sil , for example. The continental influences and the style give the wines a Burgundian signature and gives wines with an incredible value for money!