R. Parker (94/100)
If the range was not wide and confusing enough, there is a new 2018 Valtuille Vino de Villa to fulfill the new official category of village wines in the DO Bierzo. It's a blend of different plots from the village, fermented separately, all old vines with a Mencía-based field blend that also contains some Garnacha Tintorera, Bastardo and even white varieties, mostly from the plots that are bottled separately. It fermented with 100% full clusters in 5,000-liter oak vat and matured in 225- and 500-liter oak barrels for one year. This is serious, subtle and perfumed, refined, expressive and floral, with great finesse. It has a medium body with terrific balance and great freshness (some of the early harvested plots were part of the blend), purity and finesse that showcase the style of the year. The tannins are very fine and silky. This is a very impressive first effort. It feels like the blend of different places has given it an extra dimension. To give you an idea, all the 2018s have lower alcohol, and this is 13.4% alcohol with 6.11 grams of acidity (in tartaric). 4,900 bottles were filled in May 2020.
Castro Ventosa is the winery of Raúl Pérez's family. They are adapting to the new categories from the Bierzo appellation. They are focusing on their vineyards and regrafting some Merenzao now that is accepted by the DO. They are also turning their style toward more freshness in the wines, going for larger barrels; they have always had a very traditional profile. In the near future, there will be a new bottling from La Vitoriana, one of the most prestigious lieux-dits, from 2018. All of the 2018s have a lower alcoholic degree (all around 13.5%, when it was previously 14.5%) and feel very pure and clean, with better-integrated oak.