Raul Perez Ultreia St. Jacques Bierzo 2022

The Land

Bierzo sits on the border between Spain's two climates. Tucked into a basin in northwest León against the Galician mountains, it takes Atlantic rain and humidity from the west and continental heat from the Castilian meseta to the east, with a little over 700 millimeters of rain a year. The Camino de Santiago runs straight through, and Valtuille de Abajo, Raúl Pérez's home village, lies just off the pilgrim route. The village's old Mencía vineyards grow mostly on clay, with pockets of sand that give lighter, more perfumed wine. That meeting of Atlantic freshness and inland warmth is why this Bierzo red wine can ripen fully and still taste lifted and floral rather than heavy.

The Wine

Ultreia St. Jacques is Raúl Pérez's village-level Mencía, assembled from old vineyards around Valtuille de Abajo; in some vintages it has drawn on more than half of the individual lots he makes. The fruit ferments as whole clusters, stems included, in open wooden vats, which builds a fine, slightly green-edged structure and natural freshness. The wine then spends roughly ten months in used French oak and wooden vats, chosen so the wood never masks the fruit, and it is bottled unfined and unfiltered. Expect violets, red currant, and wild strawberry, then orange peel, sweet spice, and a hint of sarsaparilla with time in the glass, polished tannin, and bright acidity. 2022 was Spain's hottest year on record; Bierzo's Atlantic influence and old vines kept the Mencía ripe without losing its lift.

The People

Raúl Pérez was born in Valtuille de Abajo in 1973 into a family that had long grown grapes there, and he started out at the family winery, Castro Ventosa. In 2003 he set out on his own under the name Ultreia, the greeting pilgrims on the Camino call to one another, roughly "onward" or "let's go further." St. Jacques, Saint James, completes the reference. Since then he has become one of the most influential winemakers in Spain, consulting widely, supporting Galician producers such as Guímaro and Algueira, and making wine from Ribeira Sacra to Rías Baixas and León. He has also opened his cellar to younger winemakers, and Verónica Ortega made early wines in Bierzo in his orbit. This bottling is the entry point to all of it.

Food Pairing

Whole-cluster Mencía wants food with some char and some fat. Grilled pork chops with smoked paprika and roasted red peppers work because the acidity cuts the fat and the stem-driven green edge matches the peppers. Try roast duck legs over lentils with thyme, or a mushroom and chestnut ragout over soft polenta, where the earthy, floral side of the wine meets those forest flavors. Bierzo's own botillo, a cured pork sausage simmered with cabbage and potatoes, is the regional match if you can find it. This is the red to keep on hand for nights you cook something real but do not want to open anything precious.