Born into a Galician winemaking dynasty, Raúl Pérez honed his craft at Bodegas Castro Ventosa in Bierzo, where generations of his family have tended vines since the 1750s. Armed with a deep knowledge of both the local terroir and the Mencía grape variety, Pérez struck out alone to make wines under his own name in 2005.
For his La Vizcaína project, Raúl explores old, organically-farmed Mencía vineyards (frequently co-planted with other red and white indigenous varieties) around the Bierzo village of Valtuille de Abajo. By harvesting early and employing long, slow macerations in open-top barrels, he crafts spicy, whole-bunch reds from individual vineyard sites.
Buoyed by his successes in Bierzo, Raúl now tends plots for projects across Rías Baixas, Tierra de León, and Ribeira Sacra in north-west Spain.
