El Val - Godello (24)

Godello | 0,2 ha. | oud perceel in het koelste deel van Valtuille | oude stokken op terroir van klei, steen en kwartsiet | vergisting en rijping in een 500 liter eikenhouten vat, voor 12 maanden op de lie, geen bâtonnage | diep en geconcentreerd | rokerig | citrus | vuursteen | citroengras | heel stenig en puur | sesam | à la PYCM / Coche | indrukwekkend | amalfi citroen | grapefruit | kweepeer | iets gember | prachtig zout | gaat maar door | Grand Cru Godello

César Márquez

César Márquez is de meest verfijnde wijnmaker van Bierzo. Opgegroeid tussen de wijngaarden van Castro Ventosa, gevormd door zijn oom Raúl Pérez, maar met een eigen kompas. Vanuit een gerestaureerde 19e-eeuwse kelder in zijn geboortedorp Valtuille de Abajo werkt hij met oude wijngaarden van 80 tot 120 jaar oud, verspreid over verschillende dorpen en bodems. Hele trossen, vroeg geoogst, minimale interventie — Atlantisch van stijl, bourgondisch van logica. Zijn Mencía's zijn transparant en vol energie, zijn Godello's hebben een spanning en reductie die je zelden tegenkomt in Spanje. We zijn er trots op hem in ons portfolio te hebben.

Review

The top white 2023 El Val comes from one of the coolest places in Valtuille with vines regrafted to old-clone Godello. It has 13.09% alcohol, a pH of 3.09 and 7.98 grams of acidity, with good ripeness and very good parameters for acidity and freshness in a very complete year that is closer to 2021 than to 2022. It comes from ancient vines on clay, stone and quartzite soils and fermented in one 500-liter barrel, where the wine matured with the lees that were never stirred for 12 months. It has a stunning nose, smoky and flinty, with a lovely reduction and hints of gunpowder and toasted sesame seeds, very Burgundian à la Coche-Dury. It's very tasty, with a salty twist in the finish. Only 570 bottles were produced. It was bottled in October 2024. 97+ Luis Gutiérrez

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.