2020 Bodegas Peique Ramon Valle

The Peique family owned a small vineyard and had been making small lots of wine for many years. The vineyard has 40 hectares formed of small plots ranging between 0.2 and 1 hectare, located between 450 and 600 metres of altitude, with the influence of an Atlantic climate, partly continental and mild. Peique Ramón Valle is a wine made from Mencía, from vineyards that are between 45 and 55 years old, located on hills at 450-580 metres of altitude on sandy and clayey soils. The wine is aged for 7 months in French, Russian and American oak barrels, then spends a minimum of 5 months in the bottle before being released.

The result is a bright, clean wine with aromas of red and black fruit and balsamic notes. On the palate it is fresh and expressive with an elegant minerality.

"The astonishing slates and granites of Bierzo, and the region's unique position both exposed to yet protected from the Atlantic, makes for some sensationally exciting wines based on the Mencia variety (the same as Dão's Jaen). Our judges loved the brooding aromatic asperities of this jet-black wine, and its plunging wild-plum-and-mountain-herb flavours, improbably allied to a texture of pure velvet. Few wines, too, in our Best In Show selection this year have a longer finish than this eerie, haunting beauty."
97pts Platinum Best in Show Decanter World Wine Awards 2020