2023 Rafael Palacios Louro do Bolo

This wine, named after its grape, is made almost exclusively in and around Spanish Galicia. And then mainly in Valdeorras. Round, full taste, mild wood tones, soft acids, some spiciness and a pleasant blend of ripe citrus fruits with white fruit. Fresh exotic citrus fruit with hints of Szechuan pepper and flowers. In the mouth we experience well-integrated ripe acids, a charming plumpness, a rich and filled middle, with a discreet exotic touch in the retro. The whole is enveloped by an inconspicuous jacket of the foeder maturation 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 more famous DOs of Rias Baixas and Bierzo. The vineyards of this wine are located at an altitude of 600 to 720 meters and consist mainly of sandy soils. Valdeorras, literally valley of gold, has a continental climate. Because it is located about 150 kilometers inland, the influence of the Atlantic Ocean is a lot less than in other parts of Galicia.

Rafael Palacios is the youngest brother of Alvaro Palacios, who became famous for his project in the Priorat. The Palacios family has owned the famous Palacios-Remondo bodega in the Rioja town of Alfaro (Rioja Baja) for many years, where Alvaro left for Priorat in the late 1980s. Rafa is the youngest of 9 brothers and sisters and worked as an oenologist at the family estate in Rioja. He focused mainly on perfecting the white wine Plácet and thus acquired a taste for making top white wines in Spain.
After an internship in Valdeorras in Galicia, he was convinced that this would be where he would make his great white wine with Godello, the typical white grape from 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 looked especially for the highest, most difficult to access and lowest yielding vineyards, which the villagers were no longer interested in because they involved too much work and too little yield. He managed to buy 12 hectares in a short time, 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 has been the basic wine Bolo.

This wine was an immediate success and in a short time his wines acquired a true cult status at home and abroad. In the meantime he also uses small quantities of Treixadura and is already thinking ahead to do even better. The construction of the bodega itself is completely subordinate to acquiring the best vineyards and making the best white wine, but in 2011 the plans for that were also sufficiently mature. Rafael himself calls the Godello the lung of his wines; it is a glyceric cépage, with very few aromas. Nevertheless, this grape is capable of true top performances at high altitudes with a freshness that is unseen. Godello naturally has high tartrate acids which guarantees a good evolution over time. The Treixadura is comparable to the Godello, but has more aromatic capacities. In the meantime Rafa owns 21 ha, of which almost 20 ha Godello and just over 1 ha Treixadura. He also controls another 8 ha Godello. All the plots are farmed organically. His best plots: Sorte O Soro, Sorte Antiga and Os Canieros are fully biodynamic.