R. Parker (97/100)
I was really looking forward to tasting the 2014 Sorte O Soro, a wine that had really impressed me in the only two previous vintages, 2011 and 2009. The plot called Sorte O Soro was planted with Godello grapes 41 years ago on a southwest-facing plot at 720 meters altitude in the Bibei Valley, in the Santa Cruz village belonging to O Bolo in Valdeorras. The soils are granite based, with fine sand, quartz and schist elements, and produce very elegant wines with a rare combination of high acidity and perfect ripening. In this case the must fermented in new 500-liter French oak barrels where the wine matured in contact with the fine lees for seven months. There is no trace of oak here, there is great elegance, and has marked aromas of tangerine peel and magnolia flowers, very subtle and elegant with subdued minerality. There is superb elegance in the palate too, gobsmacking acidity and astonishing balance; it is ethereal but at the same time pungent, the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove, with the electric minerality of granite. This has world class elegance, one of the best whites produced in Spain. If I was impressed by the other vintages, this 2014 is even better. Bravo! 2,800 bottles were filled in June 2015.
Every time I meet Rafael Palacios, he's so enthusiastic about his latest wines that you might think he had discovered a new continent or something... However, this time I think he has something special in his hands. He keeps going from strength to strength with his range of Godello whites from Valdeorras. There is a terrific single vineyard O Soro from 2014, but he was hesitant about whether to release it now, after the summer, or even hold it for one more year - as he felt it was still too closed and ungiving. I think it's going to be launched in September 2016, we will see. As I liked it very much, I decided to publish the note here.
2014 and 2015 are very different vintages, 2014 is more or less an average vintage and 2015 warmer than average. I also had the chance to follow up on the evolution of the 2012, 2011, 2009, 2007 and 2005 vintages of As Sortes, none of them over the hill (in fact they all have years ahead) and my favorite was the 2011.
2015 was saved by the rains ten days after they had started harvesting, which slowed things down and allowed the grapes to achieve a perfect ripeness. 2014 is naturally balanced, and both the As Sortes and the O Soro are phenomenal.