El Rapolao, La Vizcaina de Vinos, Bierzo, 2022
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
The 2022 La Vizcaina El Rapolao is also dark and ripe, reflecting the very warm and dry conditions of the year. It has the grapes from the same plot they always usednow their propertyplus another plot that has some more Alicante Bouschet. It fermented with 100% full clusters. The wine from the original plot matured in used barrels, and the new (which is old) plot matured in an used foudre. The idea is to move all of the wines to foudre; but they find that the wines get reduced, so they are going slowly. It has some oak and a sensation of high ripeness. The wine is clean but feels quite ripe and has black rather than red fruit and an earthy touch with notes of licorice and pepper. It has abundant, slightly dusty tannins. There are some 9,000 bottles.