Sketch 2023
HK$ 629.33
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The very aromatic, floral and expressive 2023 Sketch is an Albariño from Salnés with a profile that reminds me of the wines from the past, with varietal character and a seamless palate with a silky texture but not lacking power or ripeness (it comes in at 13.5% alcohol). It's persistent, clean and precise.
Features
Type of wine
Pairings
Style
Occasions
Winery
Size
Appellation
Alcohol
13.5%
Grapes
Serving
Between 8ºC and 10ºC
Winemaking
Alcoholic fermentation in 500 litres volume used French oak barrels.
Description
On the coast where the Atlantic whispers between rocks, a wine was born that does not follow rules, but tides. Raúl Pérez Sketch is not a winemaker, he is a force of nature. Hailing from Valtuille, in El Bierzo, his fame has travelled the world not for flashy labels or for adapting to the market, but for disobeying with elegance. When he came to Rías Baixas, he didn't want to make "just another Albariño". He wanted to translate the murmur of the sea, the silence of the wet stones and the salt in the air.
Thus was born Sketch, a wine of which there are hardly any bottles, and whose essence is found not in the earth, but just a few metres from it: the old Albariño vines grown by Rodri Méndez - who also makes the renowned Leirana A Telleira - are planted just 20 metres from the sea, in soils of degraded granite and sand, lashed by salty mists and iodine-laden winds. Harvesting is manual, intuitive, almost ritualistic. And there is a story that illustrates Raúl's radicalism: for years, the bottles of Sketch were aged in cages in the sea, under the waves, as if the wine needed to keep breathing the Atlantic. It was not a commercial gimmick, but an extreme search for marine integration, for salinity without artifice. Today, although it is no longer grown underwater, its spirit remains profoundly oceanic and mineral. This signature Albariño does not seek to please everyone; it seeks to speak of a place where very few dare to grow.
Winemaking
The grapes enter the winery after a strict selection in the vineyard, when Raúl considers that the ripeness is just right: not an ounce of sweetness too much, not a hint of over-extraction. Spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts takes place without corrections or additives. There is no strict temperature control, because Pérez believes in the truth of the wine rather than its perfection.
Raúl Pérez Sketch is aged for about 12 months in used French oak barrels, where the wine rests without battonage, without intervention. There is no fining or filtering. The bottles come out when Raúl tastes them and says "that's it". Not before.
Taste
Sketch is like a gust of cold wind from the sea, a wave breaking against a cliff. The nose is wild and closed at first - reductive, almost gunpowdery notes appear - which with air open up to a cutting minerality, with green lemons, lime zest, subtle iodine, broken shells, wet stone. No trace of tropical fruit. This is not a postcard wine, it is a raw, vertical bottled landscape.
On the palate, the acidity is knife sharp, sharp and clean. There are no concessions to fat, sweetness or easy volume. The wine glides like an ocean current: taut, electric, deep. Intense salinity, noble bitterness (citrus peel, green almond), and a finish that doesn't fade, but beats with persistence. Some will say it is a difficult wine. Others, that it is a true wine.
For those in search of pure marine emotions, Raúl Pérez Sketch is not just an Albariño, it is a declaration of principles.
Shipping to Hong Kong
Estimated transit time: 3 working days.
| Bottles | Price | Complete box |
|---|---|---|
| 1-5 bottles | HK$ 139.81 | 6 bottles, Free shipping! |
| 7-11 bottles | HK$ 139.81 | 12 bottles, Free shipping! |
| 13-17 bottles | HK$ 139.81 | 18 bottles, Free shipping! |
| 19-23 bottles | HK$ 139.81 | 24 bottles, Free shipping! |
| 25-29 bottles | HK$ 139.81 | 30 bottles, Free shipping! |
| 31-35 bottles | HK$ 139.81 | 36 bottles, Free shipping! |
| 37-41 bottles | HK$ 139.81 | 42 bottles, Free shipping! |
| 43-47 bottles | HK$ 139.81 | 48 bottles, Free shipping! |
| 49-53 bottles | HK$ 139.81 | 54 bottles, Free shipping! |
| 55-59 bottles | HK$ 139.81 | 60 bottles, Free shipping! |
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