New Release: Raul Perez La Vizcaina de Vinos 2021

Luis Gutierrez describes Raul Perez’s La Vizcaina La Vitoriana as “more elegant than ever”, doling out 97pts – highly impressive for a wine that remains just a hair over £20 per bottle in bond. Moreover, the white La del Vivo has a noticeably flinty and fine character since 2021 thanks to the move to foudres for ageing. Stylistically, Godello sits somewhere in between Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc, offers similar ageing potential in the best examples, but with a satisfying, Atlantic burst of citric freshness on the palate.

Across the La Vizcaina range you get all the old vine complexity and silky, expressive character and low alcohol that imbues much of the Raul Perez output, in a style that (unlike the Ultreia single vineyard bottlings) can be enjoyed young as well as old. Recent bottles of 2013 show that there is incredible ageing potential in this range of wines, but Raul’s aspiration here is to showcase what he considers to be the best Grand Crus in his home village of Valtuille de Abajo at democratic prices.

For us, these are the perfect dinner wines – versatile, impressive to taste, and very much looking the part on the table, they rarely ever miss a beat. For full tasting notes on the wines please visit our website.

La Vitoriana, La Vizcaina de Vinos, Raul Perez, 2021

"I love the 2021 La Vizcaína La Vitoriana, where they use the westernmost part of the vineyard with more sand in the soils, mostly north facing. It's a wine with a floral nose that is aromatic and perfumed, elegant but with clout, with concentration and power. They have been picking earlier and earlier, lowering the alcohol, and they feel more comfortable below 13%; they removed the rusticity and extraction, and the wine is more elegant than ever. It reminds me of the 2018, with similar a profile of freshness. They produced around 5,000 liters from the one+ hectare they have here." – 97pts, Luis Gutierrez