Jose Antonio García and his wife Julia Peña García are at the forefront of the next-generation of vignerons in Bierzo, leading the change towards wines of place and definition. Their familial roots in Bierzo are fundamental to them, as they do all of the work in the vineyards themselves, which is signified by the term viticultor on his bottles (similar to the French term vigneron). Together, Jose and Julia’s families have owned vineyards in Bierzo for generations, providing wines that would become the backbone of other famous blends, but never bottling for themselves. With an inexhaustible work ethic, Jose and Julia set out recuperating their historic vineyards by hand, recovering them one by one from the stranglehold of wild ivy. It’s a monumental work considering the 54 acres they own and the fact that they are doing all of the work themselves. In the same way, working out of a tiny, crumbling building hundreds of years old in Valtuille de Abajo, Jose and Julia have brought the structure back to life by hand, stone by stone, building new walls and a new future from the rubble of previous generations. Renewal and rebirth are themes that run deep throughout the very soul of these wines. Quality, excellence, and soul are always the philosophy, and the resulting wines are delicious, exciting, and speak for themselves.