Ultreia Saint Jacques

The largest-volume bottling in Raúl Pérez's Ultreia range and the entry point to his Bierzo reds, though that "entry" is about volume and price, not vine age. Saint Jacques is a multi-parcel blend from in and around Valtuille de Abajo: old vines planted mostly between 1900 and 1940, Mencía at the core with the minor field-blend varieties of the village's ancient plots (Bastardo, Garnacha Tintorera and others), grown on clay with a share of sand and alluvial stones. Farming is by hand, organic in practice if uncertified.

The fruit ferments spontaneously in large open-top oak vats with a substantial proportion of whole clusters, followed by a long post-fermentation maceration of around two months or more. Ageing follows in a mix of used 225 and 500 litre oak and concrete, and the wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered.

2021 was a cooler, Atlantic-leaning year in Bierzo: a mild, damp spring and dry summer, then September rain that pushed the harvest later and forced careful sorting, giving aromatic reds at restrained alcohol (13.5% here). Around 170,000 bottles, blended from eleven of the seventeen lots made that vintage. The name nods to Santiago, Saint James, and the Camino that threads through the Bierzo.