R. Parker (94/100)
The first vintage to have the new official category on the label is the 2019 Valtuille Vino de Villa, and it's a barrel selection of barrels from the centenary vines and Villegas, El Val and some La Rata, three zones they like. This is the new focus of the winery; it's a very serious red, with volume and depth. It fermented in oak vats with 40% full clusters with the field blend and matured in 225- and 500-liter oak barrels. It has the grainy mouthfeel from the stems. It has more structure and ripeness but with great balance and moderate alcohol, really representing the village and the year. 12,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2021
At Castro Ventosa they are separating the plots to have more precision, and they have a new top-of-the-range red called La Vitoriana. The wines have less alcohol, less ripeness and less oak, and they are cleaner and more focused. They own 80 to 85 hectares from the 500 hectares in the village of Valtuille, so they don't buy a single grape (and they don't sell any either).
For César Márquez, who likes 2018, thinks 2019 is more serious, keeping the freshness (perhaps with more structure), a more complete year. 2020 had a warmer summer and saw an early harvest, and the result is better than he expected. It's a warm vintage but not as warm as 2017. I see many similar opinions in Bierzo. However, the 2020 whites felt one notch above the 2019s...