Benito Santos Monterrei Godello 2019
Winemaker Notes
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesLight, green-hued yellow. High-pitched aromas of citrus and orchard fruits, white flowers and chalky minerals, along with a subtle fennel nuance. Tightly wound Meyer lemon and pear flavors show good depth and a hint of bitter quinine. Finishes with firm cut and persistent, focused lemon pith and succulent herb notes.
San Franciscan Todd Blomberg worked with Benito Santos and took over after the latter’s death. Todd now farms three vineyards in the Val do Salnés subzone of Rías Baixas, each of which is next to and named after an ancient church: Saiar, Bemil, and Xoan. Todd bottles each of the three vineyards separately in order to preserve the distinctive terruños of each. Benito Santos is among the few producers in the D.O. who’s making, real, unconfected wines - wines that taste like Albariño and express their terroir. As Albariño has become fashionable, many producers have taken the path of making highly commercial, heavily manipulated wines. In particular, many producers use specific yeasts to get more tropical, fruity aromas and flavors. Benito Santos wines are salty, mineral, and structured. All of the vineyards are now certified organic – a rarity in rainy, mildew-prone Rías Baixas – and winemaking uses only native yeasts and minimal sulfur.
The Monterrei wine region in the northwestern region of Galicia on the border of Portugal takes its name from 'Monterrey', which means “the king's mountain” in Castilian; Monterrei is the Galician spelling. The hilltop fortress of the area overlooks the vineyards, which run north to south. Compared to other regions, the area was awarded DO status later, in 1996, although it had won provisional DO status in the 1970s.
There is a slow comeback of native grapes and winemaking styles like those in other parts of Galicia—fresh, fruity white wines and young Mencía-based red wines. While there is new investment coming into the region's small family and cooperative bodegas, much of the wine is still sold in bulk and work with native varieties is still in the early stages, but pioneering bodegas are showing the potential of the vineyards. The DO supports this by awarding the Monterrei Superior label to wines made with 85% of any native variety.
The principal white wine varieties are Doña Blanca, Godello and Treixadura while the red wines are made primarily from Mencía and Bastardo (Trousseau).
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).