Descendientes de Jose Palacios : La Faraona 2024

Characteristics and tasting tips for La Faraona 2024 from Descendientes de Jose Palacios

Food and wine pairings

With its density and mineral freshness, this single-vineyard wine is an ideal partner for prime cuts of beef such as fillet or rib-eye, as well as refined dishes like beef Wellington with its mushroom filling. It also pairs beautifully with game, particularly roast venison, and with both wild fowl and farmyard poultry. Slow-cooked dishes and truffle-based recipes also harmonise with its earthy, smoky aromatic palette.

Serving and ageing

La Faraona 2024 benefits from being decanted at least an hour before serving to fully reveal its texture and bouquet. It should be stored at a maximum temperature of 12°C. With considerable ageing potential, this wine will reach its optimal drinking window around ten years after bottling, from approximately 2034 onwards.

The elegance of a Spanish red wine from the Corullón terroir, in the heart of Bierzo

The estate

Founded in 1999 by Álvaro Palacios and his nephew Ricardo Pérez Palacios, the Descendientes de José Palacios estate covers some 27 hectares of old vines spread across numerous plots around Corullón, in the Bierzo wine region of Castile and León. Still run today by the same family duo, the house has established itself as a benchmark for biodynamic Mencía, combining old vines, schist soils and naturally low yields to craft terroir-driven wines of great purity. La Faraona remains its rarest and most sought-after expression.

The vineyard

La Faraona comes from a single family plot at the site known as El Ferro, in the municipality of Corullón, within the D.O. Bierzo appellation. This vineyard of just 0.55 hectares rises between 800 and 860 metres above sea level on very steep, south-east-facing slopes. The soils, of Palaeozoic origin and dating back to the Lower Cambrian, consist of sericitic and slaty schists weathered into fine flakes, veined with quartz and bearing metallic traces of volcanic origin. A compact rock layer, present from a depth of just 30 centimetres, naturally restricts the rooting of the 84-year-old bush-trained vines. The continental climate, strongly influenced by the Atlantic and bringing nearly 1,224 mm of rainfall a year, shapes a demanding terroir. It is farmed biodynamically, without irrigation or green harvesting, with very low yields of around 19 hl/hectare.

The vintage

The estate has rated the 2024 vintage as excellent. The grapes were harvested by hand on 5 October 2024, following a growing season that allowed full ripeness to be achieved on this high-altitude plot, despite the challenging conditions inherent to such a steep terroir.

Vinification and ageing

For La Faraona 2024, the grapes were partially destemmed and crushed before alcoholic fermentation in wooden vats with indigenous yeasts and regular punching down. Maceration lasted 43 days and was followed by spontaneous malolactic fermentation directly in barrels. The wine was then aged for 9 months in barrels and bocoyes, without fining, cold stabilisation or filtration, in order to preserve its integrity and substance.

Grape varieties

This wine is a blend of 99% Mencía, complemented by 1% of the vineyard's traditional white varieties, known locally as “de Jerez”.