Las Gundiñas, La Vizcaina de Vinos, Bierzo, 2016
Smooth, ripe and easy going, Las Gundinas 2019 offers a certain breadth and wildness replete with sweet red fruits and truffley earth notes. In 2019 Pérez worked to offset some of the vineyard’s natural richness by introducing it to larger barrels and reducing the overall time in oak, instead racking and returning to the original large wooden fermentation tanks for the first few months and then aging in 500L and foudré until September. This cuvee seems to be growing in refinement every year. A south east facing vineyard planted on clay heavy soils at 450-500m. Its warmer exposition and flatter topography versus the other La Vizcaina wines tends to produce fuller bodied, more savoury wines.
critic reviews
Opaque garnet. Mineral-accented dark berries, cherry and candied flowers on the perfumed nose. Chewy and focused on the palate, offering bitter cherry and blackberry flavors that spread out and turn sweeter with air. Gently sweet and smooth on the long, spice- and floral-tinged finish, where dusty tannins add shape and grip.
The 2016 La Vizcaina Las Gundinas comes from a plot with deeper soils, and the wine feels quite immediate and fruit driven. There is a bitter touch in the palate. I've seen some ups and downs with this wine, and Raul Perez confirmed that the wines are variable, but they tend to deliver in the medium term. It's not particularly complex, but it drinks well. 4,500 bottles produced.