Descendientes de José Palacios - Bierzo "Corullon" 2022 (750ml)
Descendientes de José Palacios Description
The vast viticultural landscape of Spain is a treasure trove of amazing, old-vine, indigenous varietal vineyards that dot the countryside in all corners of this vast and diverse country. Even as late as the 1980’s and even 1990’s, regions such as Priorat, Bierzo, Ribeira Sacra, Valdeorras, Vinos de Madrid, etc. were unknown backwater areas, with little or no culture of Fine Wine. Nonetheless, these regions each have a long history of growing grapes and making wine going back centuries, and intrepid families across generations have continued to tend vines which today form a patchwork of prime, fully mature 60-80-100+ year-old vineyards. In many ways, Spain was a sleeping giant waiting to be awakened. It just needed the guidance and know-how to exploit its hidden potential.
In 1998, Alvaro partnered with his nephew, Ricardo Perez, who had just finished his enological studies in Bordeaux and had done internships and harvest work with Christian Moueix and at Chateau Margaux. At the time, the two pretty much had “pick of the litter” for vineyards in Bierzo, and settled on an area on the western edge of the region near the tiny village of Corullòn. This part of Bierzo is unique in that it not only boasts steep, old-vine vineyards, but it is the part of the appellation that has very poor, schist soils. The majority of the region, around 90%, is actually based on clay soils on flat or small, rolling hills.
Alvaro and Ricardo’s first vintage was 1999, and they decided to name the winery after Alvaro's father and Ricardo’s grandfather, José Palacios, who had passed away in early 2000, soon after they had made their first harvest. The wine was called Corullòn, named after the village it was from. That wine was made up of several small plots that they had acquired. Two years later, in 2001, they decided that the best of these plots had true Grand Cru potential, so they decided to vinify and bottle them separately. These historic vineyards, San Martin, Moncerbal, Las Lamas, and La Faraona are still produced today and tell the true story of Bierzo and its ability to make unique, compelling, and age-worthy wines.
Today, Descendientes has a total of 35 Hectares of vineyards, mostly very old vines, and often in very tiny plots. As old plants die, they are replaced with Massale selections from the old plantings. As in Priorat, Alvaro and Ricardo gravitated early on towards a more natural approach in the vineyards in Bierzo. Today, all of their estate vineyards are farmed Biodynamically. They see the winery as a small part of a larger whole, and run it as a “complete farm”, growing other agricultural products and raising animals. They also produce many of their own Biodynamic preps. Beyond that, Ricardo Perez has become one of Spain’s foremost experts in Biodynamic viticulture, often consulting with other wineries across the country. He has even translated Rudolf Steiner’s writings on the subject into Spanish.
Selection of parcels around the village of Corullon in Bierzo. The vine age ranges from 60 - 100 years old.
Wine Advocate: 96 Points
The bottled village red 2022 Corullón was produced with grapes from around 90 different plots and had a short élevage of eight months in barrel. It is 93% Mencía, 4% Jerez (Palomino), 2.5% Alicante Bouschet and 0.5% Gran Negro bottled at 13.5% alcohol. It's floral and aromatic, but compared with the more-austere 2023, it comes through as more generous, riper and a little gentler, with more fruit but with elegance and freshness that nobody expected during the torrid summer and harvest. It keeps the freshness and poise, with fine-grained tannins. 25,392 bottles and some smaller and larger formats produced. It was bottled in August and November 2023, as they had to stop for the harvest.
