César Marquez Pico Ferreira 2023, D.O.Bierzo, Spanien
85% Mencía, 7% Alicante Bouschet, 5% weisse Trauben und andere,
aus 5 Lagen aus über 100 jährigen Anlagen. Zwischen 460-750 Meereshöhe.
Spontangärung 30% full cluster Fermentierung, einzeln ausgebaut!
12 Monate in 1200-600 Liter Fässern,
Parker 97 P
0,75 Liter
13% Alc. Enthhält Sulfite

"Der Pico Ferreira 2023 stammt von einem Lieu-dit im Dorf Corullón, einem schattigen Nordwesthang mit hundertjährigen Rebstöcken auf Schieferböden. Er wurde mit 30 % ganzen Trauben und einheimischen Hefen in 1.000-Liter-Bottichen mit 21 Tagen Mazeration vergoren und reifte ein Jahr lang in einem 1.200-Liter-Eichenbottich und 600-Liter-Fässern. Er ist etwas diskreter und blieb nach einiger Zeit im Glas verschlossen, während sich die anderen Weine öffneten. Er hat einen Alkoholgehalt von 12,98 %, einen pH-Wert von 3,57 und 5,36 g Säure sowie reichlich leicht staubige Tannine. Es wurden 1.980 Flaschen produziert. Die Abfüllung erfolgte im Januar 2025."

"The 2023 Pico Ferreira comes from a lieu-dit in the village of Corullón, a northwest-facing, shady slope planted with centenary vines on slate soils. It fermented with 30% full clusters and indigenous yeasts in 1,000-liter vats with 21 days of maceration and matured in a 1,200-liter oak vat and 600-liter barrels for one year. This is a little more discrete and remained closed after being in the glass for a while, whereas the other wines opened up. It comes in at 12.98% alcohol, with a pH of 3.57 and 5.36 grams of acidity, with abundant, slightly dusty tannins. 1,980 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2025."

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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."

 Luis Gutiérrez for Wine advocate