Raúl Pérez is without a doubt the most medial winemaker in all of Spain at the moment. However, his wines are almost impossible to find! Everyone talks about it, but few have tasted it yet. Raúl is present in numerous appellations and regions, not only in Spain, but also in South Africa, Portugal, South America. The common thread in his work is the recovery of vieilles vignes from native grape varieties and the making of authentic wines with a lot of character and personality. Or to put it in his own words: 'I'd rather make an undrinkably bad Galician wine, but at least let it be a Galician wine.' He has already vinified dozens of wines in countless different regions (usually in the northwest of Spain, and beyond), but these have never been marketed. He tests, he tries, and often fails. This way of working naturally gives him a lot of experience, which will later enable him to get the most out of one grape variety or one region. Today he makes or helps make more than 80 wines. Finally, he has recently more or less settled down by renovating two mini-bodegas of his own: one in the Tierra de León region, in the village of Valdevimbre, and another in his native region of Bierzo, where he has his business in the village of Salas de los Barrios. own Ultreia's, the absolute essence of Mencía. Raúl always works as purely as possible. He uses the minimum amount of SO2. He releases the wines from his family project under the name: Castro Ventosa In all the wines Raúl makes, he works with as little intervention as possible. For the red, entire bunches are used and vinified in old barrels. Nothing is added or corrected. The wine is then aged, again in old barrels and also under flor (so the barrels are not refilled). This flor gives the wine natural protection against oxidation during elevage and avoids the addition of sulfites. This flor is naturally present in the Ultreia cellars and Raúl uses it for both his white and red wines! The Ultreia La Cova de la Raposa is a winner from Raul Perez. Only 600 bottles of this 2021 were made, so if you can get your hands on a bottle, don't hesitate. It comes from a small plot on the southeast that only produces enough wine for a 500-liter oak barrel. The Mencia grape from a cool-climate part of Spain and in a relatively cool year makes this vintage fantastic. The wine has a moderate alcohol content of 13.1% but the aromatic expression is very beautiful with roasted notes of sunflower seeds but also blackberry, sour cherry, menthol and a bit of leather. A great gastronomic wine. Our regular customers know that we are a big fan of the wines from this region made from Mencia (or white Godello) such as the wines from Perez and, for example , Val de Sil . The continental influences and style give the wines a Burgundian signature and produce wines with an incredible price-quality ratio!