Descendientes de J. Palacios

The winery's name says literally what it is. José Palacios was Álvaro's father and Ricardo's grandfather, and the patriarch of Palacios Remondo, in Rioja. The two of them started the Bierzo project in 1999 and gave it his name; he died in early 2000, shortly after seeing the first harvest.

It was set up by Ricardo Pérez Palacios and his uncle Álvaro Palacios in Corullón, on the western edge of Bierzo. What decided them was that the minute variations in soil and exposure on those hillsides reminded them of Burgundy's Côte d'Or or Piedmont's Langhe, so they work plot by plot.

All the estate fruit is farmed biodynamically, and vineyard work is done by hand or with a mule. Ricardo has spent years influencing a generation of Spanish growers with that approach.

Villa de Corullón comes from 8.6 hectares located exclusively in the municipality of Corullón, on very steep slopes between 500 and 950 metres, over slate rock, and it is 100% mencía.

It is destemmed, ferments for about a month in open wooden vats with punch-downs, the malolactic starts on its own in those same vats and it ages in large-format oak barrels.