Descendientes de Jose Palacios 2019 'Corullon' Bierzo DO

Descendientes de Jose Palacios 2019 'Corullon' Bierzo DO

Item Number: 15166

UPC: 8-436559741163

Country: Spain
Region: Castilla y Leon
Sub Region: Bierzo
Appellation/AVA: Bierzo DO
Estate Grown Wine: Yes
Vintage: 2019
Grape(s): 91% Mencia / 1% Alicante Bouschet / 8% White Grapes
Type: Wine - Red
Bottle Size: 750 ml
Pack: 12
Closure: Cork
Alc by Vol(%): 13.5
Viticulture: Practicing Biodynamic
Soil Type: Friable schist
Elevation: 500-950 meters
Case Production: 1,700

Vine Age: 50-90 years

Terroir Notes: Over 200 small estate parcels throughout the municipality of Corullón make up this beautiful red wine. The vineyard slopes are steep (30-50 degrees). The wine is primarily Mencia with a small percentage of white grapes.

Winemaking Notes: Corullón's combination of generosity and precision confirms not only its special status, but also the superiority of Álvaro’s and Ricardo’s winemaking. The grapes are harvested and sorted by hand. The partly destemmed grapes macerate for 40 days in oak vats with hand punch downs. Yeasts are indigenous. Maturation occurs in French oak (barriques and foudres) for about 10 months. It is not fined or filtered before bottling.

97pts (2020 Vintage) Wine Advocate 1/31/2022
"I was blown away by the 2020 wines in barrel in June 2021 and found the 2020 Villa de Corullón very ready, open, expressive, floral and ethereal. It destroyed the idea I had of a warm and ripe 2020. Ricardo Pérez Palacios told me he was thinking of bottling the 2020s earlier, as they didn't need a long élevage, just nine or 10 months in barrel. The wine is pale, the palest Corullón ever, with 13.7% alcohol—perhaps the vines got blocked and didn't develop more color compounds or sugar. The wine makes me think of a red from Jura; it has a different profile and is more delicate, ethereal and full of light and energy. Pérez, who hates comparisons with other regions, couldn't stop saying that it felt like a Morey Saint Denis! It's all flowers and red fruit, with lot of super fine tannins (the 2019 tannins are rougher) that are round and give it a velvety texture with no rusticity—elegant and balanced. There is a nice balance between tannin and acidity, something this has in common with the 2019, which makes the vintages quite unusual, because being warm, the wines show balance."

Reviews

  • The Wine Advocate
    Rating: 96 (1/31/2022)
    Following the new classification of wines, the 2019 Villa de Corullón is a Vino de Villa (village), produced with grapes from 6.71 hectares divided into 200 small plots they own on slate-rich soils at 500 to 950 meters in altitude. It's 91% Mencía, 1% Alicante Bouschet and 8% white grapes from old vines (50 to 90 years old) that are organically and biodynamically farmed, and the wine will be certified in the coming years. The partly destemmed grapes fermented in oak vats with indigenous yeasts for 43 days and matured in barriques and foudres for 10 months. It has a "moderate" 13.5% alcohol, the lower part of the range, as they aim for 13.5% to 14% alcohol in the finished wines. This is a great blending exercise, as the wines are blended mostly before putting it in barrel. It's a subtle and elegant Corullón, with great balance and freshness; Ricardo talked about some tannins that are very fine. It's a fluid vintage for this bottling, a little herbal, versatile and complex. It seems to have more character than the Moncerbal than it has had in other years. This could be one of the lightest and most elegant vintages of Corullón, with a different texture from the rest of the 2019s.