Raul Perez, Ultreia Godello 2021

Grapes mostly from the eastern part of the Bierzo zone, on schist and clay soils, from vines averaging 30-35 years old. Harvest here takes place a full 20 days later than in Valtuille, yielding grapes with high natural acidity and only 11-12% potential alcohol, excellent blending material. 25% is sourced from Cacabelos on deeper clay-stony soils, and the final 25% from Valtuille where the vineyards are sandier. All plots are fermented in oak tank and assembled just before bottling. Aging takes place in barrels of various sizes and ages

First rising to prominence as the winemaker at his family estate Castro Ventosa, in 2004 he branched out on his own and now maintains a dizzying array of projects in Bierzo and further afield in Rias Baixas, Ribeira Sacra, and the Douro with Dirk Niepoort. One of his most exciting projects is particularly far-flung. It is a collaboration in South Africa with Swartland-icon Eben Sadie; producing two barrels of Monastrell that are famously hard to track down. In fact, it is near-impossible to keep track of all the labels with which Raul Perez is involved. He thinks it is close to 100.

Both the La Vizcaina and Ultreia cellars are crammed to the rafters with barrels that contain either the next-big-thing, or purely experimental wines, in the truest sense of the word. Bierzo is still a region largely untapped by producers, as the great vineyards of the Northern Rhone or Burgundy once were too.