Bodegas Virgen del Galir Pagos del Galir Godello 2019
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Lemon color, clean and shiny. Intense nose, white fruit, bush, stones. Fresh in the mouth, silky, elegant, balanced, fresh.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A dense, tight white with lots of dried peaches, lemons and hints of apples. Medium to full body, bright acidity and a flavorful finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The single-vineyard 2019 Pagos del Galir A Malosa Godello comes from a vineyard of 21 hectares planted over four years after purchasing 10 separate plots. Such a large vineyard has diverse soils—schist, slate, silt and clay—with altitudes ranging between 400 and 600 meters. This 2019 comes from the lower terraces, rich in slate and planted first, four hectares from 2015. It fermented in a 7,000-liter stainless steel vat, a 2,000-liter oak vat and two 600-liter clay amphorae (tinajas) with indigenous yeasts, and it matured with lees for six months, except the part in stainless steel that was transferred to used 500-liter oak barrels. This has a less reductive profile, having been fermented and matured in different containers (not only stainless steel, as is the case of the Maruxa), and it also comes from more schistous soils and has a more herbal and floral touch, even a bit of fennel. It's tastier and more expressive and has a dusty/mineral sensation in the texture. These whites come from a vintage with power and freshness, a year with high potential where the whites are going to age nicely.
Other Vintages
2020-
Robert
Parker
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James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator
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Wine
Spectator
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.