2018 - Rapolao, Raul Perez (Vizcaina), Bierzo

Vivid ruby-red. A highly expressive, complex bouquet evokes ripe red and blue fruits, exotic spices, potpourri, and candied licorice. Palate-staining, appealingly sweet black raspberry, mulberry, cherry cola and floral pastille flavors show fine definition and a bracing core of smoky minerality. Displays outstanding tenacity on the youthfully tannic finish, which echoes the blue fruit, floral and spice notes.

There is a bit of an animal hint on the nose of the 2018 La Vizcaína El Rapolao, which Raúl Pérez tells me is always part of the character of the wine when it's young. The difference with the 2017 is the quality of the tannins, which rounder and more elegant here, and the concentration, which is lower here, so this 2018 comes through as more fluid, fresh and elegant, with a silkier mouthfeel. They finally bought the vineyard in 2018, and the change in viticulture resulted in lower yields: they produced 6,000 bottles of this 2018, compared with the 10,000 bottles of the 2017. They have bought three more plots for this bottling, so volumes will grow in the future. The initial sensation fades after the wine has been in bottle for one hour, and it makes sense that it's gong to disappear with some more time in bottle. Pérez thinks it might be related to the recent bottling. It was bottled in May 2020, a few weeks before I tasted it.

100% Mencía. Old bush vines in the paraje El Rapolao (Valtuille de Abajo). North-facing plot. Made in oak foudres using 100% of the stems and a long post-fermentation maceration. Neither fined nor filtered. 300 bottles produced. Tasted blind. Black plum with hints of menthol and redcurrant. Warm sensations at the back palate. Herbal notes at the back palate as well. A Rapolao of landscape. (FC)