Cesar Marquez 2023 Villegas 750ml

The new 2023 Villegas is produced with a Mencía-based centenary field blend on sandy soils in a "paraje" that tends to produce more elegant wines. It fermented with 30% full clusters and indigenous yeasts in 1,000-liter containers with 18 days of maceration, and it matured in 500-liter French oak barrels for 12 months. He's been working this vineyard since 2018, three small plots, and in 2023, he decided to finally bottle two of the three plots. 2023 is very good for Villegas, a rainy year for a dry place, and the wine at this ripeness shows great elegance and floral aromas, notes of orange peel (someone said limoncello!), giving it citrus freshness. It comes in at 12.85% alcohol with a pH of 3.71 and 5.23 grams of acidity. It's very elegant and fine-boned and exceeded my expectations. Villegas is a lieu-dit of around 11 hectares, nine of them planted. It could very well be the grand cru from Valtuille. 

Score: 98 points -- Luis Gutierrez, The Wine Advocate, 2025