2011 Sorte O Soro

This is Rafa Palacio's top vineyard and this vintage seems to be at its peak now. There's just a suggestion of oak on the (otherwise extremely sophisticated) nose. According to his Irish importer Gerard Maguire of 64 Wine, Rafa has framed on his wall an email from Anne-Claude Leflaive congratulating him on making 'Spain's first Puligny-Montrachet'. Very fine and tightly focused. Bone dry with complex minerally layers of flavour. Very smart. (JR)

Late harvest Godello. RS 85 g/l. Pale gold. Light lime and blossom fragrance on the nose, then a highly sugary attack with razor sharp acid to cleanse the finish. Fairly simple grapefruit flavour profile compared with their dry cuvées. (RH)

The 2011 O Soro, from a single terraced vineyard (the small plots are called sortes in Galician language) of 0.47 hectares planted with 39-year-old Godello vines in the village of O Bolo. The soil is very fine sand of granite origin, akin to the one found on the best beaches, located at 720 meters altitude and worked following biodynamic principles. O Soro is a demanding wine. It has a reticent nose that needs time and air. Yellow, bright straw-colored. Delineated, pure, precise, with a sharp, straight nose, it takes time to start showing some notes of almonds. It’s aged on the fine lees so it’s very smoky and mineral, with aromatic herbs, star anise, and other balsamic notes. The palate is sharp, with clean acidity and a velvety texture, reminiscent of a white Burgundy, mineral laden and powerful. It has some tactile sensations that remind me of a top-class Chablis. It’s impeccably made, with great acidity. He produced this same wine in 2009, but as far as I know it was never sold. He only used it for tastings, but it was probably too young, and nobody seemed to understand it, me included. I’ve had it blind recently, and my guess was Chablis from Dauvissat. Even some whites from Spain require time. This is one of the most exciting whites currently produced in the country. 3,000 bottles were filled. It is a chameleonic wine, every time you smell it is different. Two steps up in concentration and power from As Sortes. A truly exceptional wine. It has the parameters to age slowly and for a long time, with 7.2 grams of acidity, pH of 3.05 and 14.2% alcohol. Just give it a little bit of time to absorb the oak. Drink 2014-2020. Rafael Palacios is the youngest sibling of the Palacios family of Rioja, Bierzo and Priorat fame. He was always interested in white wines, and he created one of the first modern white Riojas, Placet, while he was still working at the family winery of Palacios Remondo. But he wanted more, and he finally settled in Valdeorras, in Galicia, in the province of Orense, where the main white grape is Godello. There he searched for high altitude vineyards and granite soils that would compensate the natural fatness and fair acidity that the grapes can produce in warmer zones. He found his goldmine in the Bibei valley, where he sourced an array of very small plots from which he produced the first vintage of As Sortes in 2004. The wine was an instant success. He has since added a couple more whites to his range (he doesn’t pay attention to the reds at all). Since 2011, which he considers his best vintage to date, he offers a very limited quantity of a single-vineyard wine, O Soro, which ranks among the greatest white wines currently produced in Spain. Importer: Eric Solomon Selections, European Cellars, Charlotte, NC; tel. (704) 358-1565