Spain · Bierzo

Bodegas Y Vinedos Raúl Pérez

Raúl Pérez left his family's Bierzo winery in 2005 to found his own label, and within a decade won Winemaker of the Year from Der Feinschmecker (2014) and Best Winemaker in the World from Bettane+Desseauve (2015). His wines are built on century-old Mencía field blends, whole-cluster fermentation, and macerations of 60 to 90 days that extract fine-grained tannin without bitterness.

The producer

Bodegas y Viñedos Raúl Pérez operates from Bierzo, an appellation in the northwest corner of Castilla y León where the dominant red grape is Mencía and where old vineyards were planted as mixed fields long before monoculture became standard. The parcels Pérez works date from the 1890s through the 1940s, when Bastardo, Garnacha Tintorera, Palomino, Doña Blanca, and Godello grew alongside Mencía in the same rows. He farms these plots as they were left, harvests early to hold freshness and acidity, and then gives the skins 60 to 90 days of contact before pressing. The wine undergoes 60 to 90 days of skin contact.

The Ultreia range is the core Bierzo work. Ultreia de Valtuille draws from the Las Villegas parcel in Valtuille, with one year in neutral barrels. Ultreia Saint Jacques, the range's entry point, comes from Valtuille parcels planted across five decades and spends 14 months in used 225 to 500 litre barrels and foudres, unfined and unfiltered. La Vitoriana, bottled under the associated La Vizcaína de Vinos label, draws from 1920s vines and ages one year in used barrels. Across the three, the shared character is aromatic freshness from early harvesting held against depth from long maceration: cherry, violet, fennel, and fine tannin on the palate. Master of Wine Pedro Ballesteros called Pérez the archetype of the intuitive winemaking genius in Decanter in February 2018. The wines are designed to drink well on release and to develop for 20 years or more.

Known for

Bierzo Mencía field blends from pre-1940s parcels; extended whole-cluster maceration winemaking; multi-region single-vineyard work across northwest Spain

Notable facts

The story

The Open Door

When Raúl Pérez set up in Bierzo after 2005, the region was still working out what it was capable of. Pérez had left his family winery to build something under his own name, but the winery he built had an unusual quality: the doors stayed open. Álvaro Palacios, who had already changed the course of Priorat and was beginning to look northwest, was among the first to arrive. Pérez showed him the old parcels, the field blends, the way Mencía behaves when you harvest early and give the skins months rather than days. Palacios went on to become one of Bierzo's most prominent outside advocates, and the producers who came through Pérez's door in those years helped shape what the appellation is now known for internationally.

From the atlas

Bodegas Y Vinedos Raúl Pérez

At A Glance

Producer: Bodegas y Viñedos Raúl Pérez Country: Spain Region: Castilla y León Appellation: Bierzo (core); also León, Rías Baixas, Ribeira Sacra, Monterrei Principal Grape: Mencía (field blends with Bastardo, Garnacha Tintorera, Palomino, Doña Blanca, Alicante Bouschet, Godello) Founded: 2005 Range: Ultreia de Valtuille, Ultreia Saint Jacques, La Vitoriana (under La Vizcaína de Vinos)

The Producer

Raúl Pérez founded his own label in 2005, the year he walked away from his family winery. Within a decade he had been named Winemaker of the Year by the German publication Der Feinschmecker (2014) and Best Winemaker in the World by the French publication Bettane+Desseauve (2015). Master of Wine Pedro Ballesteros called him "the archetype of the intuitive winemaking genius" in Decanter in February 2018. The speed of that recognition matters: Pérez did not inherit a classified estate or a famous name. He started from parcels that most of Bierzo had written off.

Those parcels are old. The vineyards he works were planted between the 1890s and the 1940s, when mixed planting was standard in Bierzo and nobody pulled out the Bastardo or the Doña Blanca when Mencía took over as the region's commercial grape. Pérez farms these mixed plots as they were left, harvests early to preserve freshness, and then holds the skins in contact for two to five months. The paradox is deliberate: pick before full ripeness, extract slowly over months, and aim for a wine that is open on release but carries enough material for two decades of development.

His base is Bierzo, in the northwest corner of Castilla y León, but he also sources and makes wine in León, Rías Baixas, Ribeira Sacra, and Monterrei. The Ultreia range is the core Bierzo work and the clearest statement of what the house does.

Place

Bierzo is a Castilla y León appellation in the far northwest of Spain, physically closer to Galicia than to the Castilian meseta. The terrain is Atlantic-influenced: green hills, river valleys, rainfall measured in hundreds of millimetres rather than tens. The dominant red grape is Mencía, a variety that produces lighter, aromatic reds on the Atlantic side of the Iberian Peninsula, with violet and red fruit character and a freshness that distinguishes it from the heavier Tempranillos of Ribera del Duero.

Within Bierzo, the Valtuille de Abajo zone, where Pérez draws the Ultreia fruit, sits on soils with significant slate and clay content. Vine age matters here in a direct way: pre-phylloxera mixed planting means the roots reach deep, the yields are low without intervention, and the fruit carries a complexity that monovarietal young-vine parcels cannot replicate. The label consequence is that every Pérez Bierzo wine is a field blend, not a Mencía varietal. The appellation allows the blend; the old vineyards make it unavoidable.

Soil And Site

The Valtuille vineyards sit on a combination of slate and clay. Old vine root systems in these soils draw from deep reserves, which contributes to the aromatic lift and the fine-grained tannin that the extended macerations bring out rather than obscure. Parcels planted from the late 19th century through the 1940s were never reworked to single-variety standards, so the field blend is not a winemaking choice imposed on the vineyard: it is what the vineyard is.

Story

Pérez left his family business in 2005 and set up in Bierzo at a moment when the appellation was beginning to attract serious outside attention. Álvaro Palacios, who had already transformed Priorat, was turning northwest. Pérez was already there, and he kept his winery open to producers arriving in the region. That generosity shaped what Bierzo became: a place where the next generation of Spanish winemakers could see how old parcels and extended maceration could produce something with international ambition.

The awards came fast. By 2014, Der Feinschmecker in Germany had named Pérez Winemaker of the Year. By 2015, Bettane+Desseauve in France called him Best Winemaker in the World. These were not lifetime achievement honours. They arrived nine and ten years after a solo founding, built on field blends from parcels that had been farmed as mixed plantings for a century.

The winemaking philosophy has not shifted: minimal intervention in the vineyard, early harvesting, and macerations long enough to extract colour, tannin, and aromatic complexity without bitterness. The house target, stated on the winery's own pages, is wines that are approachable from the day of release and capable of development for 20 years or more.

Vineyards And Cellar

All three main Bierzo reds are made from field blends harvested early and fermented with a significant proportion of whole clusters. Whole-cluster fermentation adds a herbal, sometimes spiced freshness to the fruit character and contributes to the fine-grained tannin that defines the range. The macerations run long: 60 days minimum for Ultreia Saint Jacques, 60 to 90 days for Ultreia de Valtuille. That extended skin contact extracts colour and tannin gradually, avoiding the harsh, astringent extraction that comes from aggressive pumping or pressing.

After maceration, the wines age in used oak. Ultreia Saint Jacques spends 14 months in used 225L to 500L barrels and foudres. Ultreia de Valtuille and La Vitoriana each spend one year in used barrels. None of the wines is fined or filtered before bottling. Used oak rather than new means no dominant vanilla or toast character: the barrel is a container for slow oxygen integration, not a flavour source.

Native yeasts handle fermentation across the range. Early harvesting preserves acidity; long maceration builds depth; used oak and extended ageing integrate without adding weight. The whole sequence is designed to produce wines with aromatic freshness and ageing potential simultaneously.

Wines

The three main Bierzo reds differ by vineyard source, maceration length, and élevage format.

Ultreia de Valtuille draws from the Las Villegas parcel in Valtuille, from vines planted in the late 19th century. The blend is Mencía with Bastardo, Garnacha Tintorera, Godello, and Doña Blanca. Whole-cluster fermentation with native yeasts is followed by 60 to 90 days of skin contact, then one year in neutral barrels, unfined and unfiltered. Ultreia de Valtuille shows violet, blackberry, red pepper, and cherry notes.

Ultreia Saint Jacques comes from Valtuille parcels planted between the 1890s and the 1940s. The field blend here adds Bastardo, Garnacha Tintorera, Palomino, and Doña Blanca to the Mencía base. Fermentation uses 50 to 60 percent whole-cluster spontaneous fermentation in 13,000-litre open-top oak vats, with post-fermentation maceration of at least 60 days. Ageing runs 14 months in used 225L to 500L barrels and foudres. At 13.5 percent alcohol, it sits at a weight that allows early drinking and long development.

La Vitoriana, bottled under the associated La Vizcaína de Vinos label, is a Mencía-dominant field blend with Bastardo from 1920s-planted vines. One year in used 225L and 500L barrels, unfined and unfiltered. The character runs herbal and minty on the nose, with pomegranate, elderberry, and cherry, then darker fruit and spice on the palate.

In The Glass

Mencía from old Bierzo vines with whole-cluster fermentation opens with violet and red fruit: cherry, raspberry, a thread of blackberry. The herbal register, something between dried herbs and green pepper, comes from both the grape and the whole-cluster component. On the palate, the tannins are fine and even, the product of long, slow maceration rather than aggressive extraction. The acidity is noticeable and fresh, a consequence of early harvesting. The finish is clean and moderately long, with the fruit fading into a mineral, slightly earthy note from the slate soils.

Across the range, the wines grow richer and more complex from La Vitoriana through Ultreia Saint Jacques to Ultreia de Valtuille, but the shared signature is that freshness held against depth: aromatic and alive on the nose, darker and denser in the mouth, with tannin that grips without drying.

A Bottle To Understand It

Ultreia Saint Jacques is the right first bottle. It comes from Valtuille parcels planted across five decades of the late 19th and early 20th century, which means more variety in the field blend and more complexity in the final wine than a younger, single-era vineyard would produce. The 50 to 60 percent whole-cluster fermentation gives it a herbal, aromatic lift above the fruit. The 60-plus days of maceration build tannin that is present but never heavy. Fourteen months in used barrels integrate the components without adding oak flavour. Open it young and it gives raspberries, blackberries, fennel, and aromatic herbs with supple tannin. Set it aside for five or ten years and the fruit deepens, the tannin resolves further, and the mineral character from the old Valtuille slate comes through more clearly.

Anecdote

When Raúl Pérez set up in Bierzo after 2005, the region was still working out what it was capable of. Pérez had left his family winery to build something under his own name, but the winery he built had an unusual quality: the doors stayed open. Álvaro Palacios, who had already changed the course of Priorat and was beginning to look northwest toward Bierzo, was among the first to arrive. Pérez showed him the old parcels, the field blends, the way Mencía behaves when you harvest early and give the skins months rather than days. Palacios went on to become one of Bierzo's most prominent outside advocates. Pérez kept the door open for the producers who came after him, and the generation that followed shaped what the appellation is now known for internationally.

Final Word

Raúl Pérez built an internationally recognised house in under a decade, from parcels that most of Bierzo had abandoned as commercially impractical. The wines are field blends from century-old vines, made with whole-cluster fermentation and macerations long enough to extract depth without bitterness, then aged in used oak to keep the fruit clear. They drink well young and age well. The range is small and the winemaking is consistent. Ultreia Saint Jacques is where to start.

Sources

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