2022 Rafael Palacios Louro do Bolo

This wine, named after its grape, is almost exclusively made in and around Spanish Galicia. And especially in Valdeorras. Round, full taste, mild wood tones, soft acidity, some spiciness and a pleasant blend of ripe citrus fruits with white fruit. Fresh exotic citrus fruit with notes of Szechuan pepper and flowers. In the mouth we experience well-integrated ripe acidity, a charming plumpness, a rich and full middle, with a discreet exotic touch in the retro. The whole is enveloped by an unobtrusive jacket of the barrel aging with mineral characteristics. Its affinity with wood makes the wine an excellent alternative for those who are tired of Chardonnay. Rafael himself says that he makes the Spanish Grüner Veltliner !!

Valdeorras is one of the smaller and lesser known wine regions of Spain. It is located in Galicia in the northwest of the country, between the already more famous DOs of Rias Baixas and Bierzo. The vineyards of this wine are located at an altitude of 600 to 720 meters and mainly consist of sandy soils. Valdeorras, literally valley of gold, has a continental climate. Because it is about 150 kilometers inland, the influence of the Atlantic Ocean is much less than in other parts of Galicia.

Rafael Palacios is the youngest brother of Alvaro Palacios, who was best known for his project in the Priorat. The Palacios family has long had the well-known Palacios-Remondo bodega in the Rioja town of Alfaro (Rioja Baja), from where Alvaro left for Priorat in the late 1980s. Rafa is the youngest of 9 siblings and worked as an oenologist on the family estate in Rioja. He mainly focused on perfecting the white wine Plácet and thus got a taste for making top white wines in Spain.
After an internship in Valdeorras in Galicia, he was convinced that it would be here that he would make his great white wine with Godello, the typical white grape of this region. He left everything behind at the end of 2003, and in a few months he searched for and bought the oldest Godello vineyards in the highest valley of Valdeorras, the Valle del Bibei. He mainly looked for the highest, most difficult to access and smallest yielding vineyards, which the villagers were no longer interested in because they involved too much work and too few yields. In a short time he managed to purchase 12 hectares, rented a large garage and cellar nearby for vinification, and in 2004 he already made his first As Sortes. His 2nd wine, the Louro, followed one year later and since 2011 there is the base wine Bolo.

This wine immediately hit like a bomb and in a short time his wines acquired a true cult status at home and abroad. In the meantime he also uses small amounts of Treixadura and is already thinking further to do even better. The construction of the bodega itself is completely subordinated to acquiring the best vineyards and making the best white wine, but in 2011 the plans for this have also matured sufficiently. Rafael himself calls the Godello the lung of his wines; it is a glyceric varietal, with very few aromas. Nevertheless, this grape is capable of true top performances at high altitudes with a freshness that is unparalleled. Godello naturally has high tartrate acids, which guarantees a good evolution over time. The Treixadura is similar to the Godello, but has more aromatic capacities. Rafa now owns 21 ha, of which almost 20 ha Godello and just over 1 ha Treixadura. He also controls 8 ha of Godello. All the plots are organically farmed. He does his best plots: Sorte O Soro, Sorte Antiga and Os Canieros entirely in biodynamics.