Raul Perez
Bierzo Ultreia Saint Jacques
Bierzo
2020

The producer

Raul Perez is one of the world’s visionary, innovative and talented winemakers. The family estate, Bodegas Castro Ventosa is where Perez learned the art of winemaking, producing his first vintage in 1994 at the age of 22. The Perez family has been making wine in the region since 1750, and Castro Ventosa is – with 75 hectares – the largest privately owned bodega in Bierzo, a region where 1 ha is considered a large vineyard! In 2005, Perez left the family business to start his own, Bodegas y Vinedos Raul Perez. Perez is a bit of a winemaker superstar and has been awarded ‘winemaker of the year’ and ‘best winemaker in the world’ by numerous respected wine publications over the years.

Other than making his old vine Bierzos, Perez is also making wine in other parts of Galicia and is involved in numerous projects outside of Spain. The focus is always on indigenous varieties, and the vines average 80-90 years of age, with some vines over 100 years old. The vineyards are farmed organically and with minimal intervention and the wines are fermented with indigenous yeast and aged in old neutral oak barrels. We currently list one of Perez’ red Birerzos, the ‘Ultreia Saint Jacques’, which is widely known as one of the most exciting entry level wines around.

The wine

Ultreia Saint Jacques is Perez’ regional Bierzo, made from fruit sourced from 5 hectares of vineyards in and around the village of Valtuille de Abajo. The blend is mostly Mencia with varying proportion of Alicante Bouschet and Trousseau. The wine is wild yeast fermented with 80% whole clusters in large oak casks, and it is not unusual for the maceration to last two to five months. Ageing takes place in oak and cement vessels of various sizes, and finally the wine is bottled without fining and filtration. Ultreia Saint Jacques is widely recognized as one of the most exciting entry level wines available, and always has great purity and concentration of fruit.  

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.