2023 Sorte O Soro
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From a great, coolish vintage and Rafa’s favourite vineyard which he believes offers the purest expression of my beloved Godello. It’s a cool, windy, granitic south-west-facing site as high as 710 m, replanted in 1978 with a mass selection of Godello, the grape that in Valdeorras can yield wines uncannily like fine white burgundy. The wine was aged for 7 months on its lees in 500-litre French oak barrels. Just 1,500 bottles made. So pure, so beautifully structured and clearly a fine, complex, extremely refreshing dry white that will continue to evolve for many years, but is already giving pleasure. Ferran and I presented it at Barcelona Wine Week and discussed whether it was a Spanish Puligny or a Spanish Chablis – probably Chablis in this case with all that acidity, yet no shortage of stony fruit. See Ferran’s review in May 2025 . (JR)
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Punteggio medio
Jancis Robinson MW
Jancis Robinson MW
Altre recensioni e punteggi
A new release that spends at least one year in bottle, 2023 Sorte O Soro is mineral, salty, and feral in nature, with slatey minerality and subtle fruit, a reflection of its terroir, a parcel planted in 1978 at high-altitude and exposed to constant wind. It’s fresh but also concentrated, a ponderous, contemplative wine that requires your full focus, the aromas and flavors constantly evolving and changing in the glass. This is just a stunning, memorable, and incredible wine from Galicia. Drink now and over the next 12-15 years. The youngest brother of Alvaro Palacios, one of the pioneers of modern Priorat, and uncle of Ricardo Perez Palacios of Descendientes de J. Palacios in nearby Bierzo, Rafael Palacios came to Valdeorras in 2004 and started buying neglected vineyards planted to forgotten native Godello in low-yielding soils at the highest elevations. The winemaking here is modern, with a nod to tradition, using horse and mule in the highest vineyards.
The 2023 Sorte O Soro fermented in new 500-liter French oak barrels with indigenous yeasts and matured in those barrels with the fine lees after being pressed for seven months, yet the wine is anything but oaky. It feels austere and harmonious and combines power and elegance, with notes of dry herbs and flowers, perhaps a little too shy. It doesn't lack ripeness (Godello here routinely reaches 14% alcohol), but it has very good acidity and freshness, denoted by a pH of 3.01 and 7.7 grams of acidity, yet the wine is not acidic either, as ripeness and acidity compensate each other. There is a sense of purity and precision that I love. 1,900 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2024. This vineyard is also in the process of obtaining organic and biodynamic certification.
Godello from striking north-facing granite terraces, rich in quartz. The vineyard was grafted in 1997 as part of a replanting project. Rafael Palacios refers to this site as ‘La Reina’. The wine was aged for seven months on its lees in 500-litre French oak barrels. Production limited to 1,500 bottles. The attack is impressively voluminous, yet it quickly narrows and finishes with great depth. Notes of iodine emerge on the palate. This is a fluid, sapid and saline wine – pure, clean and profound. Reminiscent of a great Chablis Grand Cru, with oak that is perfectly integrated, enhancing without overpowering. A wine of maximum precision and deep emotional resonance, layered with minerality and salinity. With extraordinary ageing potential, it stretches across the palate with finesse and intensity. A wine of pure hedonism and refined complexity. (FC)