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Always the most floral and elegant of the La Vizcaina crus, the 2017 offers up freshly cut red fruits and summer berries, really finely tuned aromatics and a veritable stoniness unique to this cru. From a total of 1.5 hectares split across two parcels, one planted in the 1920s and the other in 1980. The older parcel is predominantly hard clay and stones, while the younger parcel has looser, more organic soils and they blend to create a wine of fine minerality and salinity, with silken fruit and style. Elevation averages 550m and exposition moves from north to west. Fermented with 100% whole clusters in traditional wooden vats. Unlike the rest of the La Vizcaina range, El Rapolao sees slightly a shorter skin contact, generally between 30-45 days, and ages for 12 months purely in 500L barrels rather than 225L barrique, yielding a wine of medium body, cool elegance and wonderful persistence.
Raúl Pérez is widely regarded as one of the world’s most talented, innovative, and restless winemakers. His constant reinvention of his own portfolio and quest to restore old Bierzo vineyards since breaking away from his family estate Castro Ventosa in 2004, not to mention an extensive roster of consultancy projects around the world, has helped significantly in putting this corner of north-western Spain back on the map. In doing so, Pérez has inspired legions of young winemakers to follow in his footsteps, and yet he remains humble and softly-spoken. As many commentators have noted, there is no “Raúl Pérez” style, instead his beautiful Godellos and Mencia-based reds seek only to express their origins and push the boundaries of quality within the region, with Pérez adapting the winemaking to suit each individual parcel of vines. The only constant is a hands-off philosophy that allows natural fermentations to take place in traditional wooden vats with whole bunches in the case of the reds, and aging in neutral casks of varying sizes. The two regional wines Ultreia Godello and Ultreia Saint Jacques are some of the most exciting entry-level wines we have ever come across, while the mid-level La Vizcaina de Vinos range spotlights five single vineyards in the village of Valtuille de Abajo, the heart of the Bierzo region. The small batch Ultreia bottlings are rare birds indeed, often representing no more than a barrel or two from tiny, special plots, and as such are not necessarily produced every year. Put together, the Raúl Pérez stable is a big and at times complicated range, but one thing is for sure; the wines will never disappoint.
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