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Louro 2022

Louro

2022
An excellent Godello
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£23.70

/ 0.75 L btl

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Spec sheet

TypeWhite wine
Region
Grapes
Producer
AllergensContains sulfites
Alcohol contenti14.0%
Production105,000 bottles

The wine

Louro is the starter wine from the Rafael Palacios winery in A Rua (Ourense) and the smaller sibling of the widely-praised As Sortes. Both are made using grapes from old vines (up to 40 years old) planted at heights of around 700 metres on the hillsides of the Bibei Valley. Traditional and organic farming methods are used to maintain the old stone terraces and avoid the use of herbicides. The wonderful Godello grape, which wines like As Sortes helped to restore to their rightful place at the top of Galician winemaking, is blended with a small amount (8%) of the local Treixadura variety to produce Louro. Granite and schist soils force the old plants to dig deep for nourishment in the lower levels of clay.

What does this wine taste like?

The result is a wonderfully mature and intense wine, whose excellent acidity means it flows elegantly despite a relatively high alcohol content. It combines strength and balance n a noble, concentrated and mature, yet not excessive, wine. Immediately expressive and aromatic, but also with the promise of improving over time in the bottle, although not for as many years as its sibling As Sortes whose vines are grown at a higher altitude. Louro has an intensely varietal character, with aromas of white fruit, citrus fruit and the minerality of the terroir. Saline hints commonly found from granite soils are easily recognizable at the end. Rosemary honey, bay leaves, and fennel all add a touch of distinction to the wine's fruitiness and have ensured Louro has become one of the most complex wines in its price range.

Light
Bold
Dry
Sweet
Soft
Acidic
View
Straw yellow / Clean / Greenish glints
Bouquet
Higly aromatic / Fennel / Gorse / Chestnut flower / Citrus fruits / Damp stone
Mouth
Good entry / Fresh / Voluptuous / Oily / Complex / Fruit-forward / Mineral notes / Saline notes / With personality / Characterful

Drinking and storing

Serve between 8ºC and 10ºC

Food pairing

Grilled shellfish / Juicy rice dishes / White fish

Ratings and awards

202092+ PK92 PN
201993 PK16.5 JR93 PN
201816.5+ JR93 PN
201792 PK17 JR92 PN
201692 PK17.5 JR94 PN
201591 PK17- JR91 PN
PK: ParkerJR: Jancis robinsonPN: Peñín

Wine critics reviewsReviews by Parker and Jancis Robinson

The 2019 Louro comes from a vintage that Rafa Palacios compares with 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2016, the best vintages for him. The vines are on sandy granite soils, but there are some vineyards where there's a little more clay, and the vines are worked organically. It fermented in 3,500-liter oak foudres, where the wine matured with lees for four months. It always has a small percentage of Treixadura, around 4% this year, and in 2019, it reached 14% alcohol, so it's not a shy wine. It might seem incredible, but Treixadura is a very aromatic and balsamic grape and that small percentage is clearly noticeable in the aromatics, which gives Louro a very different profile from the AS Sortes, with a more herbal and balsamic touch. But Palacios tells me that's the freshness of the year (Godello can also be herbal), as they have regrafted a lot of Treixadura. In 2019, there is less Treixadura than in previous years, and there's only one hectare of Treixadura left in his vineyards. The wine does have very good freshness, plus a very salty finish and the granite sensation that gives it an electric touch, complex, powerful and with a profile of a serious wine with very little bitterness; Palacios says it reminds him of the 2005 As Sortes. This has to be one of the best vintages of Louro, a clear step up from previous vintages. 180,000 bottles produced. It was bottled between April and May 2020 from a single master blend.

— Luis Gutiérrez (18/06/2020)Robert Parker Wine Advocate Vintage 2019 - 93 PARKER

Brilliant straw colour. Intense, dry, concentrated, sophisticated. Just the job for those who seek a reliable, sensibly priced alternative to fine white burgundy. Confident and long. Honestly, there is just nothing to criticise about this wine … you may be amazed to read. GV - Good value.

— Jancis Robinson (07/03/2021)JancisRobinson.com Vintage 2019 - 16.5 JANCIS ROBINSON

Customer reviews

4.4/5
37 reviews
Vintage:

Winemaking

Grapes are collected by hand on dates determined by the position of each plot, and the grape must is fermented in 3,000-litre oak foudres before the wine is left to stand on its fine lees for four months.

Ageing period4 months
Type of woodFoudre

Vineyards

Vine ageBetween 20 and 40 years
SoilSand / Granit / Clay
ClimateContinental with Atlantic influence
OrientationSoutheast
Altitude700.00 meters

The winery

Rafael Palacios

Rafael Palacios is the son of D. José Palacios Remondo (founder of Bodegas Palacios Remondo) and a passionate producer of white wine. After producing his first white at the family-run winery, called Plácet, he decided to set up his own winery in Galicia, in the Valle del Bibei, under the Valdeorras denomination. He came across some old Godello vineyards, ideally suited for producing his refined white wines, which he now cultivates drawing on traditional methods of vine growing,...

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