CÉSAR MÁRQUEZ PÉREZ | El Rapolao | Vino de Paraje | Bierzo | 2022
mencía | alicante bouschet

© We will be evaluating wines in no particular order on no particular schedule. Just stay tuned and you will never miss our reviews. If the wine is tasted more than once, the rating table will be updated so as to reflect all the new impressions and observations. We hope you will enjoy it!

César Márquez Pérez inaugurated his wine project in 2015, after studying enology and gathering experiences in the family business alongside his famous uncle Raul Perez. César had one dream: to craft wines that are a pure and unadulterated reflection of Bierzo’s unique terroir. His philosophy revolves around minimal intervention and maximum natural expression, creating modern micro-vinifications from historic, old-vine sites. This approach allows him to capture the unique soul of each ‘paraje’ (a designated, high-quality vineyard site), creating wines that speak not just of a grape, but of a specific place in the world.
Today we are going to review a truly remarkable wine from Bierzo, a sub-region of Castilla y León – one of Spain‘s most exciting wine regions – El Rapolao Vino de Paraje Bierzo 2022 by César Márquez Pérez. This wine is a quintessential expression of its origin – a traditional field blend made of 85% mencía, 10% alicante bouschet and 5% other white grapes that are indigenous to Bierzo. All the grapes are sourced from old vines of the El Rapolao vineyard, located at 500 meters above sea level and planted between 1920 and 1980, which create the wine incredible concentration and unique character. The El Rapolao vineyard is a 0.2-hectare parcel within a larger 3-hectare vineyard in the village of Valtuille de Abajo. Here the two vineyards benefit from cooler temperatures and clay-based soils rich in iron and organic matter. Due to the south-west facing orientation and thanks to the nearby pine forest that shades part of the vineyard, this is one of the coolest sites in Valtuille.

What makes this wine truly special is that it has been vinified in the so called ‘low intervention‘ style, where the oenologist controls the winemaking process without leaving his fingerprint on the final wine, leaving the grapes and the place to tell the full story, including partial whole-cluster fermentation with native yeasts in open wooden vats. The end result is an unfiltered and fiercely authentic wine, designed to showcase the unique terroir of the El Rapolao vineyard. The final wine has been aged for 12 months in a combination of small and big oak barrels (a 500L barrel and a 225L barrique, both of them 4 years old French oak), with additional bottle ageing time before it was deemed ready for the market release. Needless to mention that this wine is a rarity even in its homeland, with only 866 bottles produced.

Tucked into the mountainous northwest corner of Castilla y León, near the border with Galicia, Bierzo is a unique convergence of Atlantic and continental influences, resulting in a mild, humid climate with moderate rainfall and a long growing season. Vineyards sit between 450 and 800 meters above sea level, with cooler sites benefitting from hillside exposures, forested shading, and mountain breezes that preserve freshness and slow ripening of the grapes. The soils are remarkably diverse, ranging from clay-rich and iron-laden soils in valley floors, to decomposed slate and quartz on the steeper hillsides, each lending distinct mineral and textural nuances to the wines produced here.
The region’s flagship grape is mencía – a red grape variety grown widely in north-western Spain, which makes quite perfumed and relatively light-bodied red wines. It contains high amounts of aroma compounds called terpenoids, which brings up lovely floral flavours and ripe, red fruits notes. In Bierzo, mencía expresses a unique stylistic duality: in warmer, slate-rich areas, it shows bold fruit and supple richness, while in cooler, clay-dominant parcels, it offers a more earthy, savory, and structured profile, often with vivid acidity and wild herb notes. The result is a highly terroir-driven wine culture, where site-specific bottlings, especially from old vines, emphasize elegance and authenticity. Bierzo also produces characterful godello white wines, known for their weight, minerality, and good aging potential.

color: medium-pale garnet color
clarity: hazy garnet shades at the rim

In the glass, the wine presents a medium-pale garnet color, with hazy garnet shades at the rim – an indicator of its unfiltered character.

intensity: rich & vibrant
fruit character: ripe & overripe

The aromatic profile is rich and vibrant, filled with a complex tapestry of ripe to overripe red fruits. The foreground erupts with a medley of red fruits – sour cherry, redcurrant, red plum, and pomegranate, that are intricately woven with profound savory tones of iron, iodine, supple leather, and veal, all accented by nuanced herbal hints of wild herbs. In the background earthy notes emerges, suggesting brown soil and dust, elegantly layered with subtle oak-derived notes of tobacco, a gentle kick of red pepper, and a very subtle whisper of truffle.

sweetness: dry | acidity: medium+ | alcohol: high | tannin: high | balance: good
finish: medium+ | aftertaste: crisp & heady

On the palate, the wine feel crisp, heady, and firm, delivering a well-structured yet rustic experience. This is a clear-cut old world-styled wine – a true ‘vin de terroir‘ (or ‘vino de paraje‘ in spanish) with a distinctively dusty and pleasantly seedy mouthfeel. It is bone-dry, driven by exuberant acidity that gives it immense energy and freshness. However, the mouthfeel is austere, counterbalanced by an overwhelming alcoholic warmth that dominates the mid-palate, alongside firm and seedy tannins that grip the senses. The wine concludes with a long finish that echoes its core character, leaving a crisp and heady aftertaste.

maturity: developing | needs more time | age for at least 2 to 3 more years
verdict: fine | an excellent wine | a wine of premium quality with good potential

All in all, this is a deeply-savory, rustic, and austere wine that represents the essence of a modern microvinification. A textbook terroir-driven wine, with that dusty, mineral-rich footprint that many wines from this category are displaying. With its restrained use of oak and the pronounced savory character, the wine is still in a youthful state and feels a bit disjointed at the moment, lacking the desired harmony and finesse. This is a wine that is still developing and is not yet ready to be enjoyed, therefore we highly recommend cellaring it for at least 2 to 3 more years, which will allow the wine to smoothen its edges.

Given the wine’s robust structure and savory profile, it demands a food pairing that can both stand up to its intensity and complement its rustic charm. A fantastic match would be a slow-braised beef cheek stew with root vegetables. The richness of the beef would be beautifully counter-balanced by the wine’s acidity, while the earthy flavors of the vegetables would resonate with the wine’s dusty, terroir-driven notes, thus creating a congruent pairing experience that would enhance the wine’s untamed nature.
CÉSAR MÁRQUEZ PÉREZ | El Rapolao | Vino de Paraje | Bierzo | 2022
variety: mencía | alicante bouschet
country: Spain
region: Castilla y León | Bierzo
rating: 93.2

The term ‘vino de paraje’ is a specific quality classification in the Bierzo DO, similar in concept to a french ‘cru,’ designating a wine that comes from a single, named plot with unique and superior characteristics. The production of this wine is incredibly scarce, with only 866 bottles of the 2022 vintage crafted, making it a true collector’s item for those who seek out singular expressions of its unique terroir.

© The WineStatistics ratings are based solely on our own knowledge of the world of wine and on our personal wine tastes, which may, or may not, differ from yours – the reader. Just remember that there are no absolutes of right and wrong in wine appreciation. Cheers!