Descendientes de Jose Palacios "Petalos del Bierzo" 2020
(Bierzo, Spain) - [WA 93+] [JG 93+] [JS 92] [WS 91]

About the Winery:
If anyone embodies the promise and spirit of “The New Spain,” it is Álvaro Palacios. His L’Ermita is widely considered—along with Peter Sisseck’s Pingus—to be the most important new Spanish wine of the modern era.

Álvaro had long sought making great wine from old-vine Mencia, so he, along with his nephew Ricardo Perez, soon came to believe that the greatest potential lay around Corullón, a small town on Bierzo’s western border. Old vineyards lined the precipitous hillsides there, and the local soils were extremely poor—composed mostly of schist—but with incredible diversity. The minute variations in soils and exposures across this zone immediately reminded the two of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or or Piedmont’s Langhe hills.

Ricardo moved to Bierzo to guide this pioneering project. From the beginning, he embraced biodynamic viticulture as a means to craft the transparent wines of his dreams. The effort required in this sometimes-rainy corner of Spain is extraordinary, yet Ricardo believes it yields wines with more balance and transparency. And it has allowed him to build an entire ecosystem around his vineyards. Work animals provide fertilizer, produce milk for cheeses, and help him to process the biodynamic preparations. He has worked with locals to market healthier vegetables, and he produces fruit juices from surrounding orchards.

About the Wine:
Pétalos del Bierzo is assembled from old hillside and hilltop vines across from Bierzo’s western edge. The wine is vinified for immediate appeal, but it retains the estate’s signature finesse and restraint.

Fruit Source: Rented vineyards from schistcovered vineyards in Corullón and
surrounding towns. Vine age: 40-90 years.
Oak Aging: Few weeks in new French barrique
+ 6-10 months in 2nd & 3rd passage barrels.
Avg. Production: 25,000 cases

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93+ Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate:
"The regional red 2020 Pétalos comes from 90 hectares of vineyards, mainly from Corullón and Villafranca del Bierzo and the districts of Viariz, Hornija, Valtuille de Abajo and Otero. It mixes expositions, altitudes and soils and wants to paint a picture of Bierzo in the warm 2020 vintage. They reckon it's 92% Mencía with 5% other red grapes (Alicante Bouschet, Gran Negro, Pan y Carne and Negreda) and 3% whites (Valenciana, Jerez and Godello) with an average yield of 26 hectoliters per hectare. The grapes were picked from August 28th to September 24th and fermented partly destemmed in stainless steel and oak vats with indigenous yeasts for 43 days with a slow malolactic fermentation that lasted two months. The wine matured in barrel for around eight months (malolactic was fast, and the wines were put in barrel early) and was bottled unclarified, unfiltered and non-stabilized with cold. It has good ripeness with 14% alcohol (their upper limit) and moderate acidity at 4.6 grams (of tartaric acid). It's a little more fruit-driven, a vintage of sun, jovial and juicy, approachable and round with very fine, slightly powdery tannins. The fruit is darker than in the 2019. This is still young, and, as it happens with even the most approachable wines from the region, it should be even better in a couple of years. I tasted it again in mid-December, and the wine is showing better and better; time in bottle has done it some good, and the wine has settled and is getting more balanced. I don't feel the sun now; it's harmonious and more serious, juicy and tasty. A little better than anticipated. They had 1,050 barrels that produced 263,000 bottles and 1,500 magnums. It was bottled in May 2021." - Luis Gutierrez (Jan 2022)

93+ Points - John Gilman, View From the Cellar:
"The 2020 Pètalos bottling from Ricardo Perez is a lovely bottle of Mencía. This wine is made from about a fifty-fifty split of estate-grown fruit that is primarily planted on slate soils in the hills around the village of Corullón, coupled with purchased fruit from nearby farmers whose vines are planted more often than not on clay. The wine comes in at 14.1 percent octane this year and offers up a deep and youthfully complex bouquet of sweet dark berries, pomegranate, graphite, a hint of tree bark, a fine base of dark soil tones, a touch of coffee grounds and a gentle topnote of Bierzo botanicals. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and moderately tannic, with an excellent core of fruit, fine soil signature, impeccable balance and a long, complex and very promising finish. Though the Pètalos is ostensibly crafted for early drinking, the 2020 vintage is going to want some bottle age to soften up its and drink properly. I remember drinking one of Ricardo’s earliest vintages of Pètalos in a restaurant in Madrid many years ago and the distance this bottling has traveled in quality aspirations in that time is quite remarkable, as this is one stunningly beautiful wine in the making! Drink between 2026-2060." (3/1/22)

92 Points - James Suckling:
"A rather dense expression here, with dark cherries and hints of lavender and oyster sauce to the slate, crushed blueberries, dark cherries and baked strawberries. Full-bodied and tannic, but silky and powdery. Long and tangy to the end. From organically grown grapes. Drinkable now, but better in 2024." (9/22)

91 Points - Wine Spectator:
"Offering a minerally underpinning and overtones of bramble, herbs and spice, this medium-bodied red is fresh and focused, with juicy black raspberry and black cherry fruit, olive and iron flavors. Bright and well-balanced, with light, chalky tannins on the finish. Drink now through 2027." -AN (10/22)