The last day of the formal ‘wine trip’ was to be spent with Raul Perez and some of his vintner and, as days go, it was pretty memorable for a number of reasons. It all started with a drive from Villefrancha to the vineyards in Bierzo through winding mountainroads and occasional small towns. It seemed the drive took a long time but that was due in part because the bus driver, who had been an amazing asset throughout the trip, apparently missed one miniscule turn and we got off course. When we go to our destination, as you probably have come to expect, our first order of business was to walk the vineyard, or in this particular case, literally climb it up the switchbacks that scaled probably 300-400 ft vertically along the terraced vineyards. It was a pretty good hike to the top but everyone was determined to make except Kathy who wasn’t sure the knee she injured spelunking in the bodegas at Torremoron would take the hill so she stayed in the bus with a book.
I made it a good way up the hill but was forced to return back down prior to reaching the summit because of the, shall we say, lack of a handy hillside WC. I returned to the bus fully with the intent of a second attempt to reach the summit. Upon exiting the bus I heard Kathy, who was the only other person besides the driver there, talking to someone just out of view. It turned out Raul Perez who had been sent down the hill in his 4 wheel drive Mercedes SUV to fetch the injured traveler and, as it turned out, me as well.
To say the drive up was uneventful would be accurate because nothing actually happened other than going up the road. Of course, in reality, comparisons to the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland were appropriate with one small exception…with the “Indy’ ride, you know it’s Disney so you don’t actually fear for your life. We’re sure hard core vineyardist that he is, Raul knew every inch of the vineyard and the, ahem, ‘road’ up the hillside. But there was still a little angst as we flew up the dirt road taking some pretty sharp turns probably faster than recommended speed. Still, there was no extra charge for the thrill ride. At the top the red and white from that particular area were assessed and we all turned to descend with the exception of Kathy who Raul offered to usher back down the hill. When he got to the bottom, Raul simply decided that, since we were all going to the same place from here, he would just escort his charge to the next venue himself and arrive a little ahead of the bus. So I watched as he, my wife, and a mini-Joselito ham that I had seen in the back seat, disappeared around a turn.
Our boat to the vineyards of Ribiera Sacra
The drive to the Sil River was another hour or so on mountain roads in strikingly beautiful countryside that was atypical of anything I had seen previous in Spain. We ultimately arrived at a marina on the Sil River where we were instructed to board a boat. The vineyards here in the Ribiera Sacra DO are dauntingly steep…Germany steep…Cornas steep. Some of them are only accessible by boat, some need to be scaled using ladders.
The vineyards of Ribiera Sacra
The visuals were stunning, even difficult to fathom. It all seemed surreal but that was only the setup. In the boat as we cruised leisurely down the river were any array of tapas, all home made by the mother of one of Raul’s friends, who also presented his wines. We also tasted through the whole lineup of Raul’s extremely limited, benchmark efforts including ‘Sketch’, Prieto Pecudo, El Pecado and Muti. (as an aside, if you saw the recent issue of Wine Advocate, these all got crazy-big scores) with among other things some sensational meats, barnacles, and some of the best tortilla we had tasted…all floating down the river on a picture perfect sunny day. The whole thing was pretty idyllic.
For those of you not familiar with Raul Perez, he is one of those ‘no fear’ types that will try anything if he thinks it will make better wine. There are no lengths to which he will not go if he believes it might work. Later in the day in a warmish building we tasted a number of experiments that didn’t work including varietals that were quite atypical for Spain (where on earth did he get a Riesling?). He was unafraid to show them and admitted as he poured them he didn’t think it all worked out very well.
A classic example that will illustrate the Raul Perez story is the Sketch, a 100% Albariño from Raixas Bias. He makes 100 cases only and the 2007, the ‘cuvee’ we drank on the boat, just got a 95 in the recent Wine Advocate. It was unlike anything we had tasted before. He ferments the wine in special egg shaped barrels which, according to Raul, allow the lees to circulate through the barrel on their own according to the flow of gravity, though he also employs battonage (lees stirring) during its twelve months in barrel. When it is bottled, it is then loaded into large basket (unlabeled and unfoiled mind you) and lowered into the sea to precisely 30 meters of depth for a period of 60 days.
When asked about the process, his response was that deeper than 30 meters did not produce the desired effect because the pressure level was not advantageous. Too much salt got into the wine because of the increased water pressure, whereas just the right amount of salinity occurred at 30 meters. How did he come up with this? We’re not sure we could even explain it or fully understand it, but to say he marches to a different drummer does this man justice. We’re not even sure he is hearing instruments we even know. But the wines truly are unlike anything we have ever experienced and , yes, they are really good. They are also very expensive, hugely labor intensive, and made in ridiculously small quantities (A Trabe-30 3-packs for the US, Sketch-40 6packs for the country, El Pecado-16 3packs…you get the picture). The fact that the press even reviews wines made in this kind of quantity is arguably unconscionable yet they are unique to the wine world so people should know about them, shouldn’t they?
