Antoine Graillot & Raul Perez Encinas Bierzo Tinto 2018

“... the palate is superb... The wine has stuffing and freshness, and the traditional, somewhat rustic profile should turn into a beauty in bottle.It needs time and air, as that reductive character reveals itself in a flinty way with a touch of sesame seeds.”-Wine Advocate The concept of this wine is to apply both Graillot and Pérez techniques to the terroir of Bierzo. Antoine’s contribution was fermentation in cement vat, a practice that fell out of favor in Bierzo a generation ago but is still used by the Graillot family in Crozes-Hermitage. The vat he purchased for this project actually wouldn’t fit through the door of Raúl’s winery, so they had to remove a section of the roof in order to lower it in by crane. In addition to providing local knowledge and access for the grape purchases, Raúl also encouraged Antoine to leave the wine on the skins for an extended period of time after the whole cluster fermentation was complete. When I arrived to the winery on November 8th of la