R. Parker (96/100)
The 2019 Valtuille El Rapolao, now a Vino de Paraje, fermented with 100% full clusters with a long maceration and matured in well-seasoned, neutral 500-liter oak barrels (which might be eight years old now), the modus operandi for all of the single-vineyard reds. It's perfumed and heady, as it comes from a plot that also has some fruit trees, in a v-shape, planted along with some 8% Malvasía grapes that have been added since 2018 and have given it finesse. It's more exuberant on the nose, something that seems to define this wine that is quite unique and different from its siblings. It's medium-bodied with around 13% alcohol; winemaker César Márquez feels that when these wines are riper than 13.5% they are too rustic. 1,200 bottles produced. It was bottled in December 2020.
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).