El Rapolao, La Vizcaina de Vinos, Bierzo, 2020
A mark of Raul’s influence, El Rapolao is now the most labelled single vineyard wine in Bierzo (admittedly, three are his). Typically, El Rapolao is celebrated for its ripe complexity of fruit and depth, always allied to freshness. The La Vizcaina bottling coming from two plots on red soils; one mid-slope and one in the lower part, together averaging 550m of elevation. The older parcel in the mid-slope was planted in the 1920s on hard clay and stony soils and the younger, lower plot in the 1980s on clay with more organic material. Whole bunch fermented in wood and kept on the skins for 30-45 days before 12 months ageing in foudré and neutral 500L barrels.
critic reviews
There is more freshness in the 2020 La Vizcaina El Rapolao, where I even found notes of eucalyptus. It's medium-bodied and has fine tannins, very tasty and balanced. There are two new plots in 2020, so they produced some 7,500 bottles. He wants to reach 20,000 bottles here, and there will be a white Rapolao from a plot that he planted with Godello.