Bodegas Virgen del Galir Val do Galir Godello 2021
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Wine &
Spirits -
James
Suckling
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The wine is bright greenish yellow in color. The nose shows delicate minerality, with aromatic fruit and floral notes of herbs and citrus. On the palate, the wine is vibrant, with good structure and full body thanks to its lees aging.
A perfect match for seafood, fish, vegetables, white meats and stews.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
CVNE in Rioja purchased this estate in 2018, including the A Malosa vineyard where this godello grows in the village of Entoma. The terraces rise from 1,300 to 2,000 feet, on a steep hillside of slate, along with some silty clay parcels. It’s the slate that shows its potency in the wine—in the feel of its chipped-stone acidity, its salty length and vibrant grapefruit-zest and juicy pear-skin flavors. The wine is naked to its soil and only gains in awesome mineral complexity as it opens over time.
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James Suckling
Crushed stones, white pepper, dried lemons, flint, dried flowers and seaweed on the nose. So much energy and flinty minerality, with a medium body and vibrant acidity.
Other Vintages
2022-
James
Suckling
The Virgen del Galir winery is located in Éntoma, a small village in Orense. It has been part of the CVNE family since 2018. The Galir Valley falls under the Valdeorras DO (designation of origin). The winery’s philosophy is to make wines that reflect the values of the land whilst respecting local traditions. This begins with the winery’s name, a tribute to Our Lady of Galir, the protector of the region’s vineyards.
In recent years, several vineyards have been replanted and recovered in the Galir and Bibei Valleys to produce a complete range of villa (“terroir”), parcela (plot of land) and gran cru wines. The white wines of Virgen del Galir are made with grapes from the Galir Valley, an area with a lot of slate and vineyards at high altitude. The red wines are harvested from vines grown on granite soil, from plots in the Galir and Bibei Valleys.
The Virgen del Galir team is young and dynamic, closely linked to the environment and traditions of this place, with extensive knowledge of the area. Miguel Tienda and the oenologist Jorge Navascues are responsible for heading up the team and contribute their extensive experience in the wine sector and their great ideas to a project with a promising future.
Godello is native to northwest Spain and has experienced a major revival in the last 20 years. Godello wines are typically sleek and lightly creamy in texture. Barrel fermentation and lees stirring are typical in Valdeorras, Spain where the grape comes from. These winemaking techniques make the most of Godello's inherent structure and help bring out its lovely floral character. Somm Secret—DNA profiling says that Spain’s Godello is actually identical to the Portugese grape variety Gouveio, which grows throughout the Douro and Dão (where it used to mistakenly be called Verdelho).
Just to the south of Bierzo, the steeply terraced Valdeorras Spanish wine region is a respected source of both red and white wines. Garnacha Tintorera (Alicante Bouschet) and Mencía are the principal red varieties while Godello and Palomino compose the majority of this region's whites.