2021 Raul Pérez Ultreia Godello

Raúl Pérez is without a doubt the most medial 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 yet. Raúl is present in numerous 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 native 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 already vinified dozens of wines in countless different regions (usually in the northwest of Spain, and beyond), but these have never been marketed. He tests, he tries, and often fails. This way of working naturally gives him a lot of experience, which will later enable him to get the most out of one grape variety or one region.

Today he makes or helps make more than 80 wines. Finally, he has recently 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 business in the village of Salas de los Barrios. own Ultreia's, the absolute essence of Mencía. Raúl always works organically and as purely as possible. He uses the minimum amount of SO2.

Godello is making a huge advance beyond the borders of Spain and this has actually taken far too long. The international demand for Chardonnay (often of questionable quality) has certainly ensured that a few years ago Godello's were only known to 'wine connoisseurs', but this has completely changed with incredibly beautiful quality wines made by houses such as Emilio Moro and Valdesil. Raúl Pérez started this 'entry-level' white Ultreia Godello in 2017 with only a handful of bottles, but now a few years later this is one of the top ones. The grapes come from vineyards in the Bierzo region (Ponferrada and also vineyards in Cacabelos and Valtuille) and come from a mix of soils, slate and clay. This sets the tone of the white wines, it has perfect ripeness, freshness and harmony and is very clean, with precision and clarity. It is a subtle variety and was fermented in used barriques and used oak foudres of different sizes. They never rack or bâtonnage, and they never use sulfur until bottling. It is fuller and has more volume, which is compensated by more acidity. The élevage lasts until the next harvest, when they need the oak containers, in an attempt to keep them empty for as short a time as possible.

Our regular customers know that we are a big fan of the wines from this region made from Mencia (or white Godello) such as the wines from Perez, Emilio Moro (Zarzal, Revelia) and, for example , Val de Sil . The continental influences and style give the wines a Burgundian signature and produce wines with an incredible price-quality ratio!