Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
This is Raúl Pérez’s personal project, based in the hills surrounding Valtuille de Abajo, the town where he was born. La del Vivo comes from two plots, the vines planted between 1925 and 1940, focused on godello and doña blanca. The wine offers hints of almonds, but what predominates are flavors of pineapple and ripe peach, united by fresh acidity. More subtle touches of oxidation bring complexity. Delicious now, this wine needs two or three years to show everything it has to offer.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I also got to taste the 2015 La Vizcaína la del Vivo, which came from a vineyard in the zone of La Poulosa in the village of Valtuille de Abajo that was planted with Godello as well as reds and other white varieties. The wine was fermented in 500-liter oak barrels and old terracotta amphorae. It has a subtle nose, with contained ripeness (it's 11.8% alcohol!) and a flinty, gunpowder-like sensation. The palate is austere and mineral, serious, tasty, not as explosive as other vintages. This is more about the soil. I think this is going to age beautifully. Some 3,500 bottles were filled in March 2017.
Rating: 93+
Godello is native to northwest Spain and has experienced a major revival in the last 20 years. Godello wines are typically sleek and lightly creamy in texture. Barrel fermentation and lees stirring are typical in Valdeorras, Spain where the grape comes from. These winemaking techniques make the most of Godello's inherent structure and help bring out its lovely floral character. Somm Secret—DNA profiling says that Spain’s Godello is actually identical to the Portugese grape variety Gouveio, which grows throughout the Douro and Dão (where it used to mistakenly be called Verdelho).
One of the few northwestern Spanish regions with a focus on a red variety, Bierzo, part of Castilla y León, is home to the flowery and fruity Mencia grape. Mencia produces balanced and bright red wines full of strawberry, raspberry, pomegranate, baking spice, pepper and black licorice. The well-drained soils of Bierzo are slate and granite.