|  Ribeira
Sacras :
After several days in Rías
Baixas marked by some lovely
wines, but also plagued by arson (fire destroyed some
of Do Ferreiro's vines, among
others), I turned west toward Ribeira
Sacra and Valdeorras. The
former has some of Spain's most spectactularly
beautiful vineyards, which are planted on terraces along
slate-strewn hillsides that plunge steeply to the banks
of lakes created by the dammed-up north-south-flowing
Miño and
east-west-flowing Sil
rivers. The Ribeira
Sacra DO has 3,000 acres of the vineyards that
snake through the Galician provinces of Lugo
(in the north) and Orense
(in the south) and is divided into five subzones:
northernmost Chantada
and Ribeiras do Minho
(along the Minho River) [Use
Minho, which is Gallego
and Portuguese, essentially the same language], and
Amandi
and Quiroga-Bibei
(along the Sil) - all in Lugo province - and Ribieras do Sil
(along the Orense portion
of the Sil).
Ribeira Sacra is producing
some surprisingly good, terroir-laced
red wines from mencía,
Spain's most exciting rediscovered red variety, but
several promising, still little known, godello-
and albariño-based whites also are grown here. Abadía da
Cova, Ribeira
Sacra's top bodega, offers a delicious, complex Albariño
accented by the addition of 15 percent godello
and treixadura; a
fine Godello, with 15 percent
albariño added, is also made
here. José Manuel Rodríguez,
president of the Ribeira Sacra Consejo Regulador (regulatory council), makes the excellent Décima Godello,
which, with its white peach and mineral flavors, is
reminiscent of viognier. The Godellos of Donandrea Toxeiro
y Peza do Rei
are also delicious.
 Valdeorras:
Just east of Ribeira
Sacra, with 3,700 acres of DO vineyards along the Sil
valley is Valdeorras, which
is showing excellent potential for fine godello-based
whites that reflect their particular terroir.
Valdeorras, which could very well be Spain's Burgundy,
is attracting more serious winemakers, such as peripatetic
Telmo Rodríguez
and Rafael Palacios (brother of Priorat-La
Rioja-Bierzo winemaking star,
Álvaro
Palacios). They have come here to make rich,
fruity, but well-balanced wines laced with mineral finishes
from old vines godello vineyards
terraced on well-drained slopes; the results are reminiscent
of the best white wines of France.
After making wines for several years in his family's
Palacios Remondo winery in La Rioja
Baja, including the very well-regarded Placet,
one of the best 100% viura
wines ever made in La Rioja,
Rafael Palacios burst onto the Galician white wine scene
in 2005 with As Sortes
Godello white, which was in instant sensation. After
a rumored family rift and, perhaps a desire to make
his own mark free of the shadow of his superstar brother,
Álvaro, Rafael moved to Valdeorras
(Palacio's cousins are also
making wine there and in neighboring Bierzo)
and procured some high altitude, terraced old vines
godello from which
he crafts his signature. When first released As Sortes
will score in the low 90s on just about anyone's scale.
It is cask fermented in foudres
(again, a la Alsace) and the wine is left on the lees for
several months in the cask. The resulting wine is Burgundy
weight, richly fruity, mineral-laced, leesy
and without marked oak characteristics, but early on
it exhibits a slightly cloudy, too-deep green-gold color,
which, if it were a sweet wine would not cause concern,
but in a dry white it often means that after a year
the wine may be an downhill oxidative spiral, which
I have seen in several other Spanish white wines vinified this way. One hopes that Palacios will master his
superb godello raw
material, because tastings of his first efforts show the potential to make one
of the great white wines of Europe.
Rodríguez
is the former winemaker of Rioja's
Remelluri,
where he made some memorable, highly rated reds and
one of Rioja's most interesting
whites from a blend of several native and foreign varieties.
He now makes Telmo
Rodríguez y Cia wines in
such far-flung areas as Ribera
del Duero,
La Rioja, Alicante
and Málaga. Two years ago,
he introduced his first Valdeorras wine, an old vines godello
called Gabo
do Xil. The 2004 was already showing an advanced deep,
green-gold color, but was somewhat out of balance; it
did possess a promising character that made it a wine
worth revisiting in vintages to come. Rodríguez admits that he considers Gabo
do Xil an entry-level Godello,
but the 2005, which I tasted over dinner with young
star chef Vicente Patiño's food at Sal de Mar restaurant
in Denia
(Alicante) in January, was silky, spicy, delicious and performed
well above Telmo's own advance
billing for the wine.
 A
Valdeorras godello-based
wine with a longer history is Godeval,
which shows the flinty, mineral terruño
(terroir) from the pizzara- (slate)
strewn slopes around a refurbished old monastery that
is the winery. In its early years, Godeval
reached depths of flavor and complexity that few other
native Spanish whites achieve. It has become quite popular
over the past few years, however, and, though still
quite good, it may have slipped slightly as its production
has grown to meet demand. Godeval also makes a more expensive barrel-fermented godello, but the oak obscures the wine's nuances and haunting
mineral flavors.
La Tapada,
which produces Guitian, uses godello
grown on vineyards around the winery that are distinctly
less rocky than those at Godeval.
José Hidalgo, winemaker at La Rioja's
Bodegas Bilbaínas,
is La Tapada's consulting
enologists. Guitian is a pleasant, rich, glossy mouthful of tropical fruit,
but it does not achieve godeval's
complexity. I tend to discount the barrel-fermented
version, because of its overt butterscotch flavor and
a surfeit of oak, but I recently had to amend that opinion
when I tasted the 1997 and found it surprisingly good.
Other Valdeorras 100 percent godello-based
wines of interest are Galiciano
Dia, Joaquín
Rebelledo, Viña
Somoza and Pezas
de Portela. After
this article was almost complete, I tasted the latest
vintage of Pezas de Portela, the 2005, at the trendy Urban
restaurant in the Hotel Urban, perhaps
the hottest new hotel in Madrid.
It was simply stunning, easily as good as many white
Burgundies. Two days later, at Mari Carmen Velez's
superb La Sirena
restaurant in Petrer, outside
Alicante, I had the 2002, which showed some of
the same fruit and terroir,
and was tasting a lot like
aged Burgundy.
There is no doubt that Galicia
is turning out truly fine whites from native grapes.
These refreshingly different varieties - albariño,
godello and treixadura, especially
- are proving themselves capable of producing memorable
wines that are fruity, spicy, often complex, dry, mineral-laced
and excellent companions to food.
That is a revelation in a country thought as little
as decade ago incapable of making world-class white
wines.
First appeared in Wine News Mar-Apr 2007
Gerry Dawes is an American wine
and food writer, specialising in Spain. He has been
traveling to all the nooks and corners of Spain for
more than 30 years. In 2003, he was awarded the Marqués
de Busianos Spanish National Gastronomy Prize.
About the author
 Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine.
Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com Alternate e-mails (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@optonline.net or gerrydawes@hotmail.com
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