Rafael Palacios

Rafa Palacios is the white winemaker of Spain. In barely 1 decade he has put himself on the map as the specialist of top white wines. His influence was enormous. At the moment, Godello is one of Spain's most popular white grape varieties and all the well-known oenologists in Valdeorras have their own project.

Rafael Palacios is the youngest brother of Alvaro Palacios, who became best known for his project in the Priorat. The Palacios family has had the famous Palacios-Remondo bodega in the town of Alfaro (Rioja Baja) for many years, where Alvaro left for Priorat in the late 80s. Rafa is the youngest of nine 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 vineyards Godello in the highest valley of Valdeorras, Valle del Bibei. He mainly looked for the highest elevation, most difficult to access and least profitable vineyards that the villagers were no longer interested in because they involved too much work and too few yields. He managed to buy 12 hectares in a short time, rented a large garage and cellar nearby for vinification, and in 2004 he made his first As Sortes. His second wine, the Louro, followed a year later.

This wine immediately hit like a bomb and in a short time his wines gained a true cult status at home and abroad. In the meantime, he also uses small amounts of Treixadura and is already thinking about doing even better. The construction of the bodega is completely subordinate to the acquisition of the best vineyards and the making of the best white wine, but in 2011 the building plans have matured sufficiently and he has built a small and practical hall with a view of the vineyard of Sorte Antiga.

Rafael himself calls the Godello the 'lung' of his wines; It is a glyceric variety, with very few aromas. Nevertheless, at high altitudes, this grape is capable of true top performance and acquires a freshness that is unprecedented. Godello naturally has high tartaric acids, which guarantees a good evolution over time. Treixadura is similar to Godello but has more aromatic capacities.