Descendientes de J. Palacios

Together with his nephew, Ricardo Perez, legendary Priorat winemaker Alvaro Palacios founded the Bierzo-based Descendientes de J Palacios in 1998. Together the pair have gained an enviable reputation for their fragrant and elegant wines made from Mencía. Descendientes de J Palacios (the estate is named in honour of Palacios's father, who died in 2000) is based in the village of Villafranca del Bierzo. Using fruit from old vines planted on extremely steep hillsides – much like those Palacios works with in Priorat – Palacios and Perez produce a Burgundy-model range of wines (region, village and single-vineyard expressions) that express the ripe, spiced fruit profile, beguiling, garrigue-y aromas and smoky minerality of Bierzo’s old-vine Mencía.

The entry-level Pétalos is an elegant ‘regional’ Mencía with a beautiful balance of fruit, minerality and floral notes. Corullón is a ‘village-level’ wine produced from more than 20 vineyards across Corullón. This cuvée includes a small proportion of white grapes. The top wines of the range are the single-vineyard Las Lamas, a ripe, glossy Mencía produced from extremely low-yielding vines at about 700 metres altitude, and La Faraona, which uses fruit from a small vineyard at 900m altitude. This wine is comparable in quality to Palacios’s L’Ermita in Priorat. All of these wines are seductive and approachable when young, but offer great ageing potential.