2022 Raul Pérez Lomas de Valtuille La del Vivo

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. It uses the minimum amount 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 that the residents 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.

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) certainly meant 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 makes this La Vizcaína La del Vivo by fermentation and aging in 500 liter oak barrels and one amphora with skin and lees, which are used together for the final blend. 14-16 months aging. Biodynamic wines. No temperature control during fermentation. During vinification, the principles of gravity are applied, without pumps and with as few interventions as possible to get the wine as pure, clean and expressive as possible in the bottle

The Godello grapes for the Lomas de Valtuille, La del Vivo come from a two-hectare vineyard, so the volume is very low. The Godello has salty and mineral notes with some roughness in its younger years, complex and this wine will develop further complexity over the next 10 years. Deep in color. Not an everyday fragrance palette. Hints of white fruits, grassy accents, nutty, roasted, as well as spiciness and minerals. Dry taste with reflection of the scents. A wine glass that fascinates and needs work. After some ventilation, more primary fruit and tight minerals. A real meal wine.

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 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!