'Louro do Bolo'
Valdeorras DO · Galicia, Spain
- 100ml
- £12
- Bottle
- £62
A Coravin draws the wine through the cork under argon without opening the bottle. It lets us pour 100ml of wines we could not otherwise offer by the glass.
- Grape
- Godello
- Vintage
- 2023
- Region
- Valdeorras, Galicia
The short version
Godello was nearly extinct — a recovery project started in 1976, and the first bottlings only appeared in 1981.
Made by Álvaro Palacios' younger brother, who left Rioja in 2004 to work one grape on one Galician hillside.
The best white on the list under £15 a pour. Burgundy weight, Atlantic snap.
How it tastes
Aroma & flavour
Sell it with
Hake Steak, Nduja Mussels & Samphire
Our own list says Godello for whole fish on the coals when the fish is rich, and this is that plate. The acidity and salinity cut the nduja fat without being stripped by it, and the foudre texture gives it enough weight to sit beside the mussels rather than under them.
Where to take them next
The detail — if they ask
Whole bunches pressed, fermented on wild yeast in 3,500-litre French oak foudres, then four months on fine lees in the same vessels. Large neutral wood, so it takes texture and roundness from the oak without a trace of vanilla or toast. Lemon peel and fennel over granite, with a faintly bitter, savoury finish.
Rafael Palacios
- Producer
- Younger brother of Álvaro Palacios of Priorat, from the Palacios Remondo family of Rioja. He left in 2004 to work one grape in one Galician valley, across 32 steep terraced parcels.
- Region
- Val do Bibei, on the western edge of Valdeorras, above 600 metres. Sandy soils from decomposed granite — poor, fast-draining, and the reason the wine tastes of stone.
- Grapes
- Godello nearly died out after phylloxera. A recovery project began in 1976 and the first varietal bottlings appeared in 1981 — this grape came back from the dead in living memory.
Think the weight of white Burgundy with an Atlantic snap and a savoury finish.