2020 Sketch
Sketch is the flagship wine of Raul Perez made from Albariño
Raúl Pérez Pereira is universally considered to be one of the world’s most visionary winemakers. Since he produced his first vintage for his family’s winery in 1994 at the age 22, he has been in the forefront of the conversation about what has been called “The New Spain”. In 2005, he left his family business to strike out on his own, creating Bodegas y Viñedos Raúl Pérez, which quickly became the point of reference for the Bierzo appellation. In the intervening years, he has expanded his sphere of activity to include the appellations of Rías Baixas, Ribeira Sacra and Tierra de León, but his heart and his home remain in Valtuille de Abajo, the village in Bierzo where his family has been tending vines for well over 300 years.
In addition to numerous other accolades, Raúl was named “Winemaker of the Year” by German publication Der Feinschmecker in 2014 and “Best Winemaker in the World” for 2015 by the French publication Bettane+Desseauve. In the February 2018 Decanter, Master of Wine Pedro Ballesteros wrote, “Raúl Pérez is the archetype of the intuitive winemaking genius.” A picture of Raúl in that same article is captioned, “Is this the best winemaker in the world?” Raúl would certainly not self-apply any of these superlatives. In fact, his genius is far exceeded by his humility and generosity of spirit. That humility comes through in his wines. These are not “winemaker” wines so much as they are unadulterated expressions of the villages and vineyards from which they hail.
So hello everybody so it’s that time of year when I share my favorite wines of 2023 and I’ll start with the white for me it’s not often that a legendary Colt wine lives up to the hype but this one not only lived up to the hype it
Actually may be the best white wine I’ve ever had in my life my favorite white wine that I had in the last year was the 2020 sketch this is the flagship wine made by one of the most respected and Innovative wine makers in the world Raul Perez and in March of
2023 I actually had the great Fortune to get to meet him in person alberino is one of my favorite grape varietals especially when it comes from Ria spicious in Spain like this one did and if you haven’t discovered this grap please do yourself a favor and go out
And try one unfortunately this one will be particularly hard to find because it is a heavily allocated wine and it’s extremely difficult to find even if you wanted to pay the $100 price tag there’s only about 1,500 bottles produced every year I was fortunate enough to be able
To acquire two of them the one I had and this one I’m saving for a yet to be determined special occasion cheers everybody