New from Spain

RAUL PEREZ, ULTREIA SAINT JAQUES, 2008, MENCIA, BIERZO, SPAIN.

£11.99 BOTTLE

Raul Perez is undoubtedly one of the current superstars of Spanish wine with consultancies and projects all over the country, but mostly in his native Northwest. His family own Castro Ventosa in Bierzo, Galicia, which overlooks a heavenly view of perhaps the most strikingly dramatic and stunningly beautiful wine region in the world (from a wine merchant who has been lucky enough to visit Portugal’s Douro River Valley, this is not hyperbole).    Raul has been making wine here since his teenage years but recently he has embarked on his own projects in Bierzo, Monterrei, Rias Baixas and the stunning Ribera Sacra, in Galicia’s Ourense and Lugo provinces. The existence of terroir-driven native varietals flourishing in Bierzo is a joy and here the native Mencía grape emerges from obscurity. Grown in precariously steep vineyards and often clinging to treacherous slate-strewn hillsides and Roman-style terraces, the indigenous variety is responsible for some of Spain’s most intriguing and delicious terroir-laced reds.
It has become quite evident to me, after tasting through a handful of these wines, that Mencía-based wines grown on these stony, well-drained soils, and enjoying beneficial altitudes (some vineyards are more than 2,500 feet above sea level), sunlight and rainfall, have the potential to rival the some of the best wines in Europe.
This assessment holds up despite a preponderance of popular, New Age, cellar-driven winemaking techniques that threaten to obscure both the glorious freshness of the Mencía fruit and the haunting, mineral flavors for which many French vintners would give an arm and a leg. But with the best vineyards, the marriage of Mencía and ideal terroir produce enough personality that sometimes the fruit actually has enough character, and the charm of sweet red raspberry- and blackcurrant fruit and the rustic, garrigue-like flavours and graphite-like minerals (Bierzo and Ribeira Sacra, have these traits in abundance) make for a memorable palate profile that makes you want to drink more.
Mencía is grown in the Galician DOs Valdeorras and Monterrei, where predominately white wines, especially those made from the potentially spectacular native godello, rule. Yet this surprising red variety is having its greatest impact in Bierzo, some 250 miles northwest of Madrid, and emerging Ribeira Sacra, another 70-odd miles to the west. At this juncture, by far the more important of these two regions is Bierzo, which was not even a blip on the Spanish wine radar less than a decade ago – even for Spaniards. Yet in the past half-dozen years, the region has experienced meteoric growth, vaulting from obscurity to critical acclaim. Among the best wines: the richly flavoured Descendientes de J. Palacios wines from the old vines vineyards of Corullón (made by Priorat’s Álvaro Palacios and his cousin, Ricardo Pérez) and a range of Domino de Tares wines made until recently by former Ribera del Duero enologist Amancio Fernandez; Bierzo’s Mencía-based reds are capable of standing alongside the best of Burgundy, Bordeaux, Napa Valley or any region on earth.
From Raul’s newly inaugurated Bodega Cabildo de Salas, comes the raw material for the production of wines that have made Bierzo the most exciting emerging Spanish region since Priorat. We are lucky to have the new vintage of Ultreia Saint Jaques available (and four wines who’s volumes are so tiny we do not list them, but if you are interested please ask about availability and price).