Raul Perez - Ultreia De Valtuille Mencia 2021

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Village: Valtuille de Abajo / Vineyard: Las Villegas / Year of plantation: End of the 19th century / Hectares: 1.7 / Altitude: 580 meters ASL / Soil: Sandy / Orientation: South Southeast / Plant density: 4500 vines / hectare / Varieties: Mostly Mencía with Bastardo (Trousseau), Garnacha Tintorera (Alicante Bouschet), Godello and Doña Blanca / Elaboration: Harvested at the end of August / beginning of September. Whole-cluster fermentation with native yeasts in large, open-top chestnut vat. 60-90 day maceration followed by one year of aging in neutral barrel. Bottled without fining or filtration.

Raul Perez Description

Raúl Pérez Pereira is universally considered to be one of the world’s most visionary winemakers. Since he produced his first vintage for his family’s winery in 1994 at the age 22, he has been in the forefront of the conversation about what has been called “The New Spain”. In 2005, he left his family business to strike out on his own, creating Bodegas y Viñedos Raúl Pérez, which quickly became the point of reference for the Bierzo appellation. In the intervening years, he has expanded his sphere of activity to include the appellations of Rías Baixas, Ribeira Sacra and Tierra de León, but his heart and his home remain in Valtuille de Abajo, the village in Bierzo where his family has been tending vines for well over 300 years.

In addition to numerous other accolades, Raúl was named “Winemaker of the Year” by German publication Der Feinschmecker in 2014 and “Best Winemaker in the World” for 2015 by the French publication Bettane+Desseauve. In the February 2018 Decanter, Master of Wine Pedro Ballesteros wrote, “Raúl Pérez is the archetype of the intuitive winemaking genius.” A picture of Raúl in that same article is captioned, “Is this the best winemaker in the world?” Raúl would certainly not self-apply any of these superlatives. In fact, his genius is far exceeded by his humility and generosity of spirit. That humility comes through in his wines. These are not “winemaker” wines so much as they are unadulterated expressions of the villages and vineyards from which they hail.

Wine Advocate: 97 Points

2021 Ultreia Valtuille was produced with the clay part of their Villegas plot, as the sandy part was used for the new Ultreia Villegas bottling but introduced the lower part of the vineyard with more soil and more clay. They produced more or less the same amount as in previous years, some 18 barriques; but in 2021, they introduced foudres for part of the wine, and in this first year, the foudre was newer (they used it to ferment a white before). They also started renewing their barrels, so the wines show a little more oak than usual. It has moderate alcohol and mellow acidity, and it seems like the longer cycle and the slow ripening burned some acidity.- Luis Gutierrez