Bodegas y Vinedos de Viariz

In the western mountains of Bierzo, there is a village called Viariz. It sits at nine hundred meters above sea level and counts fewer than fifty inhabitants. Here, at altitudes up to an eye-watering 1045 meters—almost 3500 feet—above sea level, are the highest vineyards in the entire Bierzo appellation, period. Up through 2018, they belonged to the famed Álvaro Palacios’ nephew Ricardo Pérez Palacios, the trailblazer at the helm of the renowned Descendientes de J. Palacios winery. Finding complications with the Viariz vineyards and desiring to consolidate his holdings down to his home base of Corullón village, Ricardo turned to that other titan of Bierzo: Raúl Pérez.

Known to be searching for high-altitude sites, Raúl jumped at the opportunity and was able to acquire these eight hectares or so in Viariz in early 2019. Raúl’s been very tight-lipped about the project (full name: Bodegas y Viñedos de Viariz), but we’ve tasted enough sneak previews in Spain over the last few years to know that something extremely special was brewing.

But it wasn’t clear just how special until August 2023, when the 2021 vintage of the top wine from the project, La Muria, was awarded 100 points in The Wine Advocate, only the second Bierzo wine ever to do so after Ricardo Palacios’ own La Faraona, a wine now considered to be one of the single top collector’s trophies from Spain and whose current releases trade for well over a thousand dollars per bottle—if you can find them. Welcome to the club, Raúl…

The magic starts, as ever, in the vineyards. The vines, mostly Mencía with Bastardo (Trousseau) and Palomino intermixed, struggle their way to fine-tuned ripeness on hard, unyielding slate and schist soils where, due to the extreme conditions, Raúl crops about 7 hectoliters per hectare. The resulting combination of concentrated complexity and weightless elegance is already stunning, but Raúl believes there’s plenty of work yet to do, as he’s plowing his entire holdings here by horse—a supremely difficult undertaking in this steep, remote area– in an effort to loosen and further rehabilitate the soils.

Vinification will come as no surprise to followers of Raúl’s work: 100% whole clusters ferment spontaneously in open-top oak, and after a period of post-fermentation maceration (about sixty days with no punchdowns or pumpovers, just gentle moistening of the cap) the vats are pressed into used French barrique, 500L barrel, and foudre, depending on the cuvée and year.

Two wines are produced under the Viariz label. Viariz, a zonal blend, is sourced primarily from the lower reaches of the village (only in this extreme context can 900-plus meter vineyards be described as ‘lower’). In any other setting, this wine would be considered a ravishing standalone masterpiece. But of course, there is also La Muria: named for the lieu-dit at the very top of his holdings here (1045 meters), it’s been called “explosive… amazing… a true coup de coeur”.

We extend a hearty congratulations to Raúl on his well-deserved accolades with this project, and are proud to welcome it to American shores for the first time as national importer. From his home in Valtuille on the valley floor, to Valdecañada in the eastern mountains, and now in the highest reaches of the west, Raúl is showing the limits of what can be achieved across a vast spectrum of Bierzo’s best terroirs.