“Raúl Pérez doesn’t stop”
Quote by L. Gutiérrez, Spanish wine taster for R. Parker.
And he’s absolutely right. Remember how enthusiastic I was last year about this new project by Raúl Pérez? We visited Raúl’s home with the entire team in November 2023, and he let us taste 101 new things.
Not everything is ready to be released, and for some projects he waits for years until he’s fully convinced; And sometimes we’re lucky, and something is just perfect when we happen to be tasting together.
That was the case with his small project in Valdecañada, a remote area in the mountains near Ponferrada.
After more than an hour on narrow mountain roads, he showed us a steep slope of pure slate.
This is the village of Valdecañada, where only a few vineyards remain.
The rest has returned to wilderness. Yet
Raúl felt a strong pull toward these almost vanished vines.
He bought an old warehouse and some vines back in 2008, but it’s only since 2015 that he vinifies them separately, after years of testing and tasting.
This is far more
stony, earthy and mineral than his other Ultreia wines from Valtuille in lower Bierzo.
By now, his old warehouse is filled with barrels, and we tasted nearly all of them… What wines!!
Back at his home in Valtuille de Abajo, we tasted the 2018, and it was just right.
We had to get it!
Those who attended our end-of-year tasting in Knokke or Herentals had the privilege of tasting these wines – straight from the master himself.
The wine sold out in no time. That’s why we already had reservations for the new vintage, which has just arrived:
Valdecañada 2019 and especially
Cerro de Valdecañada 2019. A bit firmer than the 2018,
and still absolutely top-notch!
These wines are exceptional, authentic, and have that little extra something so many others lack.
This is not mainstream!
Vintage Raúl… Truly great, with impressive ageing potential.
He makes 2 wines here:
- Valdecañada, from several old, recovered vines on slate slopes, with a production of just about 1,000 bottles
- El Cerro de Valdecañada, from the oldest vines on the steepest slope. Just 3 barrels, with only 600 bottles made.
Both are phenomenal. Don’t miss out – we’ve only received a very small allocation.
You really need this in your cellar, even if it’s just a single bottle (yes, sorry – they’re not cheap, reviving these old vines took money… and a lot of time).