2020 Ultreia St Jacques

Full bottle 1,346 g. 'Saint Jacques is by far the most important wine I make', says Raúl Pérez. Made from old vines from all over Bierzo. Mostly clay and sand-based sites, roughly 85% clay and 15% sand. Fermented in traditional oak vats (ex-Vega Sicilia) with 80% whole bunches and kept on the skins for two months before pressing into neutral barrels for a further 10 months. The wine is based on the local grape Mencía but there are some field blends so there are some smaller proportions of Alicante Bouschet, Trousseau, Palomino, and other wild grapes. It's named after the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage (aka Chemin de Saint Jacques) which passes through the Bierzo region. Note that an Ultreia Saint James's was made with Justerini & Brooks buyer Mark Dearing for the first time in 2020. Transparent crimson. Thoroughly satisfying, complex, lifted perfume that already shows some integration even if quite a hit of acidity and a little tannin on the palate. It doesn't have the sweet majesty of Bierzo reds costing many times as much but is clearly an artisanal product from the heavily bearded Pérez. Refreshing and only medium body in terms of impact on the palate. VGV (JR)

They had not bottled the 2020 Ultreia Saint Jacques yet and were still waiting for the labels (and they label the day after they bottle), so I caught an unbottled sample that was very tender and fruit-driven, primary and quite open. He used more stems and full clusters in 2020, and since 2018, they have removed the percentage of white grapes that used to be included in the wine. It's a little more Mediterranean, with aromatic herbs and a more powerful palate. There will be some 120,000 bottles from 2020.