La Salvación Godello 2023 White

César Márquez's wines have been steadily gaining recognition in recent years. Although he first came into the spotlight as Raúl Pérez's nephew, he has firmly established his own identity and is now regarded as one of the most interesting producers to watch in Bierzo (Castilla y León).

This is the profile we published of him in 2021, after a visit to the area. Márquez also manages the Castro Ventosa family winery alongside his sister and with the help of their uncle Raúl, who always helps with the blends.

Working in a cosy bodega in Valtuille de Abajo, Márquez produces around 65,000 bottles annually. His most available wine is the entry-level red Parajes (35,000-40,000 bottles), yet the excellent juicy village wine, Valtuille Vino de Villa, already amounts to 12,000 bottles. Many of the seven hectares of vines he has acquired in recent years are destined for this wine. Becoming a vineyard owner has been a major milestone for someone who started from scratch buying grapes from local growers. He felt that investing in vineyards before establishing a brand and a name for himself would have been too risky. “I wouldn't have been able to cope with years of mildew, hail or frost,” he explains.

Márquez also sources grapes for many of his lieu-dit wines from his own vineyards, including Villegas, El Rapolao and La Val (a single-barrel white), all in his home village of Valtuille de Abajo. For the two lieu-dit reds that have cemented his reputation, Pico Ferreira and Sufreiral, he still buys grapes from Corullón and Toral de los Vados respectively.

The wine we are highlighting this week, La Salvación, offers some of the best value for money in the range, along with Valtuille Vino de Villa. It is also a good opportunity to reflect on the rapid rise of the Godello grape in Bierzo. Márquez is a strong advocate of what is known locally as the "old clone" of Godello, which he prefers over the "new clone”, which has larger bunches and higher yields. 

Since the debut 2015 vintage, a limited release of just 600 bottles, Márquez has changed the grape sources several times. For some time, he blended grapes from various villages, but since the 2020 vintage, La Salvación comes from a single vineyard owned by a wine grower in Arganza. He values not only on the freshness imparted by the site’s high elevation (710 metres), but also on the character of the vineyard itself: a one-hectare slope on clay, stone and slate, planted with very old vines and re-grafted in 2003 with the old Godello clone that Márquez is so fond of.

A peculiarity that Márquez told us about the 2023 vintage is that the Godello was harvested earlier than the Mencía, even though the latter has a shorter growing cycle. In general, he considers 2023 a better vintage than 2022, which was marked by heat and drought.

La Salvación 2023 has aromas of aniseed and ripe white fruits. It is a serious, mouth-filling white with citrus flavours, fresh acidity, good length and a chalky finish that enhances its firm mouthfeel. Márquez likes to pick Godello relatively early. The wine is fermented in 500-litre barrels with natural yeasts and aged for one year in the same barrels, without bâtonnage.

6,000 bottles
13% abv.
€24 
Score: 93