R. Parker (99/100)
The pale and delicate 2020 La Faraona is the lowest in alcohol at 13.5% and is more reductive than its siblings—flinty and faintly smoky. It needs breathing, so it might be a good idea to decant it in advance if you're going to open a bottle any time soon. What's important is that the palate is terribly balanced, with lots of ultra fine tannins, silky, soft, full of flavors, elegant, complex and nuanced. It has lots of inner energy and tension, and it's subtle and ethereal. The finish is full of sweet red fruit and violets, nicely balanced by the tannins and the acidity. It's delicious and should develop nicely in bottle and drink well throughout its life. It's hard to compare with previous vintages, as this is more delicate than any previous years. It's a different style but every bit as good as 2019. The vineyard is 85% Mencía and the rest other varieties; when they bought the vineyard, it was 50% white grapes, and they have slowly been replanting and regrafting it, looking after every single plant. It's a half hectare at the top of the slope, at 975 meters in altitude, one of the highest vineyards in Bierzo. Like Moncerbal and Las Lamas, La Faraona is certified organic starting in 2020. Bravo! 1,400 bottles were filled in October 2021.
They are bottling the wines from Bierzo earlier than ever, so I already tasted the 2020s in bottle for the region's article at the end of January 2022. I include those notes here for the completeness of the article, but now I only tasted the unbottled 2021s, from a very different year, which, according to Ricardo Pérez Palacios, was the most challenging year so far, a year when Mencía wouldn't ripen! I had already tasted some of those 2021s before, and back then, even if the wines were going through full malolactic, the Moncerbal already shone and felt to be among the finest vintages for this paraje.
2021 was an atypical year, cooler but with a warm and dry end of the season. They harvested some grapes at the end of August and then they had to stop ... because the grapes wouldn't ripen! So, Pétalos is only 13.5% alcohol. Some wines have a reductive character; it was a cooler and dry year, and the wines showed that character, continental and cold, despite the heat in July and August. The wines are juicy and aromatic, a lot fresher than they anticipated. The wines have contained alcohol (all around 13.5%) and a narrower profile. It should be a long-lived vintage, perhaps not as juicy as the 2018s, but with very good balance and freshness.
James Suckling (99/100)
A very expressive, scented nose that offers iron and raw-meat character at first, with nice flinty reduction, then it turns to white sesame, racy raspberries, agave, slate, fresh flowers and dried herbs. Ethereal and super-elegant with a juicy palate, threaded by extremely fine but fresh tannins. It goes on and on, but in a subtle way. This takes your breath away with its fascinating perfume and linearity. From organically grown grapes.
Irresistible now if you give it time to breathe to whittle down the reductive character, but better after 2025.
Guía Peñin (97/100)
-