César Márquez Pérez – Valtuille Vino de Villa 2023

För första gången kan vi erbjuda flaskor från Spanska Bierzos stjärnproducent César Márquez Pérez. Vi har fått tilldelning av Césars röda Valtuille Vino de Villa 2023. En årgång Robert Parker beskriver som “some of the finest and more elegant wines he has produced so far”.

94+p, Robert Parker, Wine Advocate
“The village red 2023 Valtuille Vino de Villa comes from sandy soils on closer plots. This year, it’s 85% Mencía, 10% Alicante Bouschet and 5% other white and red varieties like Bastardo, Sousón or Estaladiña. It fermented with some full clusters in 1,000-liter vessels and matured in 500-liter barrels. It’s juicy, round, harmonious and fruit-driven, with freshness and elegance. It has a moderate 12.55% alcohol, a pH of 3.51 and 5.42 grams of acidity. 6,890 bottles produced. It was bottled in March 2025.”

César Márquez Pérez, Raúl Pérez’s nephew, is one of the most precise winemakers in Bierzo with the family Castro Ventosa range and his personal project, which he started in 2015. In the 2023 vintage, he is releasing a new wine from the Villegas area, a lieu-dit in Valtuille on sandy soils. The single-vineyard wines are aging in increasingly larger oak containers, combining 1,200-liter vats with 500- and 600-liter barrels. He owns 7.2 hectares and works a further seven with local growers across Bierzo, from altitudes ranging between 450 to 850 meters above sea level. His production is slowly growing, and he now crafts 60,000 bottles per year.

As he told me while tasting the wines from the family winery, Castro Ventosa, which he also vinifies, “2023 was a cooler vintage with rain at the beginning of the harvest. The wines have a floral, serious and elegant profile with a contained alcohol content of 12.5% to 13%.” These are some of the finest and more elegant wines he has produced so far.