Description
La Vizcaína, Bierzo Tinto “Las Gundiñas”
Today’s wine fired me up so much, I opened a Google Doc and began furiously typing these very words in the midst of tasting it. Because, in the rare instances I encounter a bottle that perfectly fills in every bubble, and this most certainly is one, the moment must be captured.
This is a wine that needs not be “blinded” or snuck into a lineup to impress. Nor is it a wine that requires an advanced palate to be fully appreciated. This sensational rara avis stands proudly and prominently on its own towering peak of greatness: the backstory pulls you in like a great novel; its ancient raw material hails from a singularly compelling micro-site; its winemaker is a region-defining legend; and quantities are so limited that every bottle becomes a special event. As you might imagine, there are very, very few wines of such elite caliber that don’t also cost a small fortune. Fortunately for us all, Raúl Pérez’ “Las Gundiñas” is one of the shockingly fair-priced few. Each sip communicates so much electricity and density of data, making it a no-brainer as a grail for immediate enjoyment or as a tantalizing cellar magnet for years to come.
Many years ago, there was a serious buzz about Raúl Pérez becoming “the next big thing” in Spanish wine. He was a clean-cut, English-speaking go-getter with a Midas touch in the cellar, earning monikers like “The Wizard” and an endless deluge of flattering press and superlatives from wine industry tastemakers. Pérez’s fragrant, detailed, elegant reds appealed to French-obsessed palates and the always-fair prices belied always-extraordinary quality. Pérez more or less put the Spanish growing region of Bierzo on the map, and he is credited with teaching the men behind neighboring Ribeira Sacra’s two most well-known estates, Guímaro and Algueira, how to make wine. So, it’s not unfair to say that the borderland area spanning Galicia and Castilla y Léon—arguably the “hottest” winemaking region in Spain today—would not be what it is without Pérez’s talent and tenacity in those early days. As his star has continued to rise, he’s taken on scores of different projects, including collaborations with fellow winemakers all over the world—the Graillot family of the Northern Rhône; Eben Sadie of South Africa; and Dirk Niepoort in Portugal.
In recent years, much attention and praise has been given to Pérez’ two most famous and high-priced Spanish reds, “La Penitencia” and “El Pecado.” That said, I feel strongly that today’s “Las Gundiñas” deserves mention in the same elite class—if not at the pinnacle of Pérez’s vast and globally revered lineup. Planted in 1910, Las Gundiñas is a celebrated Bierzo site planted to 2.2 hectares of low-density vines that watch over Raúl’s home village at an altitude of 1600 feet. One might assume this bottling to be “100% Mencia” but the truth is far more compelling: In addition to centenarian Mencía vines, pockets of Bastardo (a.k.a. Trousseau in the Jura) dot the vineyard, as well as Alicante Bouschet and Doña Blanca. It is a true field blend, and a living testament to the broad variety of grape cuttings brought here by monks and missionaries who walked the nearby Camino del Santiago in centuries past.
Grapes are harvested by hand and fermented, with whole clusters intact, in large oak vats. Maceration lasts for 1-2 months (an eternity by the standard of most peers in Castilla y León) before the wine goes into hibernation for a year in used 225-liter French barrels. It is bottled without fining or filtration and allowed to rest for another 6-12 months before release.
After the touch of struck-flint reduction blows away, the purest aromatics known to Bierzo roll out of the glass with an air of sophistication: ripe plum and cherries, thyme, huckleberry, crushed black rock, black pepper, freshly turned earth. The palate is just over medium-bodied and generously polished with glossy tannins that allow the wine to glide into a long finish. As we’ve said before, Pérez’s top wines have always targeted the “venn diagram” where Loire, Northern Rhône, and Southern Burgundy reds overlap. It’s a joyous occasion when you get to experience all of these characteristics in one glass! For drinking today, please decant at 55-60 degrees and serve in large Burgundy stems, preferably alongside a rustic dish like braised rabbit or lamb shoulder chops. But, again—if you wish to add some low-risk, extremely high-reward firepower to your cellar for the coming years, I can’t recommend today’s wine strongly enough.
