Decanter Rising Star 2026: 'Jerez mavericks' Ramiro Ibáñez and Willy Pérez

Introducing the Decanter Rising Star 2026 award winners

Decanter's Rising Star Award for 2026 goes to Jerez mavericks Ramiro Ibáñez and Willy Pérez, whose scholarly exploration of the region’s history and identity has turned them into the charismatic faces of a quiet revolution that serves as a blueprint for winemakers the world over.

Along with the Decanter Hall of Fame celebration of a lifetime’s achievements, our Rising Star award recognises talents whose impact on the wine world is in full bloom.

In Sanlúcar de Barrameda in southern Spain, Ramiro Ibáñez tells me, the best growers are known as aficionados, a word usually used to refer to a subject’s fervent lovers. ‘The geniuses, the gifted ones that come once in a generation, are called buen aficionados.’

He offers the explanation to outline how viticultural expertise in the Marco de Jerez (the demarcated area within which Jerez Sherry and brandy are produced) is so inextricably linked to emotions and identity.

It’s the same afición with which Ibáñez and his friend and business partner Luis ‘Willy’ Pérez are invested in their shared quest, made material in the maverick rebirth of the De la Riva brand.

The pair are arguably the buen aficionados of their own generation, having – through painstaking research work, relentless digging into archives and informed dissent – inspired a new generation of producers and opened a discussion about Jerez’s history, identity and future.

Ibáñez and Pérez’s work is fuelled by equal amounts of passion and intellectual inquisitiveness; according to both, one is inseparable from the other.

Rebels with a cause

Pérez (born 1982) and Ibáñez (born 1980) grew up in relative proximity, in Jerez de La Frontera and Sanlúcar de Barrameda respectively, but their paths didn’t cross until they both went to the same university in the 2000s, part of a small group of oenology students.

‘It was a time when there was this fascination with international varieties, intensity, wood... Jerez was not really on trend,’ says Ibáñez.

Perhaps that played a part in fostering their deep interest in their own region, ‘especially for its historical weight,’ says Ibáñez.

Having finished their studies, Pérez returned to the family winery (Bodegas Luis Pérez) and Ibáñez started working at a local cooperative before starting his own project, Cota 45.

Meanwhile, the pair embarked on a shared journey of research and exploration. ‘We had many questions that the modern version of the Marco de Jerez didn’t provide answers to,’ says Pérez.

‘We started studying – history, soils, wines, people – seeking an old knowledge that predated a modern understanding of the wines [from Jerez] exclusively from the point of view of the winery.’

The pair systematically tasted, visited vineyards, engaged with producers and growers, went through historical archives and rummaged through old cellars. ‘At some point we felt the need to put all this knowledge into practice.’ In 2015, De la Riva was thus born.

‘We were very clear that we wanted to work with a historical brand,’ Pérez explains.

M Ant de la Riva (Manuel Antonio de la Riva) had been owned by historic Jerez wine and brandy house Pedro Domecq – for whom Pérez’s father, the renowned enologist and professor Luis Pérez, worked before starting his eponymous winery in 2002.

As part of the dismemberment of Domecq in 2005, the brand was acquired by multinational Beam Global and left dormant.

Luis had judiciously kept De la Riva’s records, saving them from ending up in a skip, giving Pérez and Ibáñez a remarkable source of practical, first-hand knowledge.

‘Recovering a historical, once highly regarded brand was in itself a declaration of intent,’ Pérez continues, pulling one of the historical ledgers, from the mid-19th century, from the shelf and opening it to reveal daily field and winery annotations.

‘This is just an example of the information we’ve been lucky enough to have access to. We’ve gone through the archives of so many wineries. It’s pure gold.’

Nuance as a manifesto

Beyond the stricter parameters they’re bound by in their ‘day jobs’, De la Riva has given Ibáñez and Pérez liberty to explore different vineyards, styles and techniques – a laboratory of their ongoing scholarly quest.

‘It’s a universe where we have fun and don’t set ourselves any limits,’ says Ibáñez. ‘And it allows us to interpret all the historical data.’

Their philosophy, they say, primarily involves the refusal of a winemaking of ‘immediacy and obviousness’ in favour of one of ‘nuance, understood through the lives and knowledge of those that touched the parcels before us’, as Pérez explains. ‘The real work is to produce a historical, cultural web of the Marco de Jerez.’

This means pursuing wines led by the history and profile of the vineyard rather than a particular style or ageing category. Chief among their explorations has been the rebirth of the unfortified wines known as vinos de pasto.

Their efforts started against a backdrop of crisis, in Jerez as elsewhere, as the world economy contracted, demand for fortified wines declined and production costs increased significantly.

‘For the last 20 to 30 years, the vineyard didn’t seem to matter and the answer [to increased pressure] seemed to be formulaic work in the winery,’ Ibáñez says.

‘We had to go back to the books, the elderly growers and the old bottles to find what we were looking for – those nuances of the wines [that were] made in the vineyard.’

In the records from the past they’ve found ‘echoes, clues and lessons from other crises – recurring problems and recurring solutions,’ Ibáñez says.

Pérez continues the thought: ‘Different causes, different protagonists, but always the same consequence – usually the creation of a different style that can easily become obsolete, disconnected from the reality and problems it was meant to address.

‘Now we’re living in a great moment for white [unfortified] wines, but these new wines need to be connected to all the work and wines – sweet, oxidative, biologically aged – that came before. All of it is Jerez. If they are not connected to tradition, these white wines [vinos de pasto] will not succeed,’ Pérez concludes.

Past, present & future

Having found themselves in a period of deep change, Ibáñez and Pérez felt the need to put it into context, acknowledging the cyclical nature of history.

‘Understanding why certain wines were produced at a given time – be it because of technical limitations, different interpretations of terroir or the sensibility of winemakers – and identifying their fundamental elements is what really allows us to capture the essence of a given place,’ Pérez explains.

In practical terms, this informs their decisions about which styles to produce from a given site.

‘Even if we produce [an unfortified] white from El Corregidor, for example, we’ll always be influenced by Sandeman’s Oloroso 7a Criadera from 1940 – it’s the ultimate expression of that plot,’ he continues.

By exploring what they call the ‘liquid and human history’ of Jerez’s vineyards, they’re building a canon of sites and wines that transcends styles and trends – perhaps even time.

‘We always interpret the past through the perspective of the present,’ Pérez concludes. ‘We can always find the answers we want to find.’

Put simply, their work aspires to create a vision of the future through the lens of the past, liberated from the prejudices dictated by the present.

Faces of a movement

Willingly or not, the pair have become the face of a quiet revolution – a blueprint for how producers, in Jerez and beyond, can leverage legacy while remaining true to themselves, evolve without compromising identity, experiment with style without losing the essence of the vineyard.

It’s impossible to think of the renewed energy found in Jerez today without acknowledging the role played by Ibáñez and Pérez.

While they’re not in it for myth-making, their charisma has been a big part of their effectiveness. Pérez’s polished eloquence and striking, leading-man looks; Ibáñez’s earnest directness and rugged erudition – it’s an ideal, complementary casting for a headline duo.

Managing the spotlight hasn’t always been easy. ‘We need to be mindful of what we say,’ explains Ibáñez.

‘We try to focus on what we do rather than criticising others. We may not agree with certain sensibilities and ways of doing things, but we try to understand the motivations behind them. A bit like when we try to understand how things were done in past generations.’

‘If we’re sitting here today it’s also because of those with whom we don’t agree,’ Pérez continues. ‘There’s definitely a responsibility not to make statements that shed a negative light on others. We’ve lived through 15 years of so many challenges and changes; it’s important to contribute with a positive outlook.’

Their authority has been hard won, through plenty of legwork, scholarly precision and the softening of some of the harder edges of youth. It’s also imbued with a palpable sense of wonder, pleasure and fun.

‘It’s been a blessing to be able to taste wines made 90, 100 years ago from parcels we’re producing wines from now,’ Ibáñez concludes. ‘It’s an incredible source of information but also of motivation. It’s not history for its own sake.’

In the future, there will be a chapter in the history of the Marco de Jerez dedicated to the changes catalysed by the nerdy, restless, determined rummagings of these two university friends. Many will also find in it clues on how to live a good life.

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