2023 Raul Pérez La Vizcaina La Vitoriana

Raúl Pérez is currently, without a doubt, the most media-savvy winemaker in all of Spain. However, his wines are almost impossible to find! Everyone talks about them, yet few have actually tasted them. Raúl is present in countless appellations and regions, not only in Spain, but also in South Africa, Portugal, and South America. The common thread in his work is the recovery of old vines of indigenous grape varieties and the production of authentic wines with great character and personality. Or, to put it in his own words: 'I would rather make an undrinkably bad Galician wine, but at least let it be a Galician wine.' Consequently, he has already vinified dozens of wines in countless different regions (mostly in the northwest of Spain, but also beyond), yet none of them have ever been released to the market. He tests, he tries, and very often fails. Naturally, this way of working provides him with an enormous amount of experience, which later enables him to extract the absolute maximum from a single grape variety or a single region.

Today, he makes or helps produce more than 80 wines. Eventually, he has also more or less settled down by cultivating two of his own mini-bodegas: one in the Tierra de León region, in the village of Valdevimbre, and another in his native Bierzo, where, in the village of Salas de los Barrios, he makes his own Ultreias—the absolute essence of Mencía. Raúl always works as purely as possible. He uses the minimum amount of SO2.

La Vizcaína is a project by Raul Pérez in which he classifies 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. De 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 into the bottle as pure, clean, and expressive as possible. Fermentation and maceration in 5,000-liter vats. 10 months of aging in second-year French oak barrels.

La Vitoriana is deeper in color than the other Lomas de Valtuille. Closed on the nose and needs to aerate a bit. Firm on the palate with plenty of bite, but also juicy, fruit-driven, and perfectly balanced. The flavor unfolds on the palate. Structured, grand, and with depth. A wine with bite, where the tannins make themselves felt in the finish.

Our regular customers know that we are big fans of the wines from this region made from Mencia (or the 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 result in wines with an incredible price-quality ratio!