El Pecado 2022
£63.88 (Inc. VAT bot. 75 cl.) / North Ireland
Features
Type of wine
Pairings
Style
Occasions
Winery
Size
Appellation
Alcohol
14.0%
Grapes
Serving
Between 14ºC and 16ºC
Winemaking
Aged for 14 months in used French oak barrels.
Description
At the northernmost tip of the Bierzo, where the valleys are squeezed between impossible slopes and the fog clings to the hillsides like a silent prayer, Raúl Pérez found a vineyard that did not seek the limelight, but spoke in a low, firm voice. It was a hidden plot in Amandi, Ribeira Sacra, a corner where the Mencía variety does not expand, but is collected, contained by pure slate soils and steep terraces that demand hand-harvesting, with more respect than haste. It was there that Raúl Pérez El Pecado was born, not as a provocation, but as an intimate confession: a wine that does not pretend to please everyone, but that seduces without concessions.
Raúl Pérez -who abandoned the comfort of labels to become an alchemist of the terroir- bet on this almost inaccessible plot when many considered it unviable for ageing wines. But his intuition, almost animalistic, pushed him to listen to the murmur of these old vines, surviving on the edge of the abyss. It was a risky decision, almost foolish, but also coherent with his philosophy: to let nature speak, even if it sometimes does so crudely. The wine is 100% Mencía, but forget here everything you thought you knew about this grape: there is no easy sweetness, no overflowing fruit. Just the austere purity of the Ribeira Sacra, with its Atlantic humidity, its dramatic slopes, its age-old silence.
Winemaking
Raúl Pérez El Pecado is harvested by hand, in small boxes, when the phenolic maturation reaches the right point, without exceeding it. The grapes are partially destemmed and fermented with indigenous yeasts in small truncated cone-shaped wooden vats, where the temperature is controlled naturally, without aggressive intervention. The maceration is long but delicate, seeking to extract texture rather than colour, structure rather than volume. The wine is then transferred to used 500-litre French oak barrels, where it undergoes malolactic fermentation and remains for 14 to 16 months without racking, in reductive ageing on its fine lees, refining in an almost monastic silence. There is no clarification, just a light filtration if strictly necessary. Each bottle of Raúl Pérez El Pecado is the direct echo of the vineyard, without make-up.
Taste
Raúl Pérez El Pecado does not go into the glass: it goes right through it. Immediately, a dark and elusive perfume unfolds, like a flower that opens only at night. Notes of graphite, dried black plum, sandalwood and a balsamic hint reminiscent of wild thyme scorched by the Galician sun. Nothing is exuberant, everything is insinuated, like a whisper in an empty room. On the palate, the attack is linear, firm, almost severe, but wrapped in a silky texture that disarms. A perfectly integrated acidity draws a tense, almost vertical, route, where mineral memories return: wet stone, slate smoke, cold ash. There is no obvious oak, but there is a kind of sweet shadow that supports the whole without imposing its aroma. The finish is long, meditative, with a retronasal that remains more in the memory than on the palate.
Raúl Pérez El Pecado does not seek easy applause. It is a wine that demands attention and rewards waiting. A bottle that does not shout, but leaves a mark. A sincere rarity, where the Mencía reveals its most sober, deepest, most Galician face. A bottled confession.
Shipping to North Ireland
50% discount on orders over £352.66Estimated transit time: 4-5 working days.
| Bottles | Price | Over £352.66 |
|---|---|---|
| 1-6 | £11.37 | £5.69 (-£5.69) |
| 7-12 | £15.43 | £7.71 (-£7.71) |
| 13-18 | £21.60 | £10.80 (-£10.80) |
| 19-24 | £29.54 | £14.77 (-£14.77) |
| 25-30 | £34.30 | £17.15 (-£17.15) |
| 31-36 | £38.35 | £19.18 (-£19.18) |
| 37-42 | £46.29 | £23.14 (-£23.14) |
| 43-48 | £50.70 | £25.35 (-£25.35) |
| 49-54 | £57.26 | £28.63 (-£28.63) |
| 55-60 | £61.54 | £30.77 (-£30.77) |
| VAT included | ||
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