Raul Perez (La Vizcaina) Bierzo Mencia La Poulosa 2019 CS20230906 it is more bittersweet than

it is more bittersweet than sweet

which is a fair summary of Filipa Pato's whole approach

shy-bearing spot: a volcanic

This crisp

and the 1950s-planted Brea vineyard in Serralunga that produces their Ca'Mia bottling

Raul Perez (La Vizcaina) Bierzo Mencia La Poulosa 2019 CS20230906 it is more bittersweet thanRaul Perez is the winemaker who dragged Bierzo out of obscurity and made Mencia a grape people argue about. La Vizcaina is his home turf project around Valtuille de Abajo, working the old parcels of slate and clay in the hills of northwest Spain, where the vines are frequently ancient and the plots are tiny. La Poulosa is one of the single site bottlings, and like the rest of the range it goes light on extraction and heavy on site expression. Mencia