Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Ultreia La Claudina is austere and mineral and smells of wet rocks. It comes from a dry place in a rainy year, on sandy soils that deliver elegant wines. It aged in a well-seasoned and neutral 2007 oak foudre. This was bottled without malolactic and has a very austere, stony mouthfeel, with restraint and elegance. This is the small-grained Godello from Bierzo, different from the one from Valdeorrras that has larger grapes.
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James Suckling
Citrus, orchard fruit, iodine and a subtle bitterness. The medium- to full-bodied palate shows salinity and stone fruit with tension between flavor and length. From sandy soils in Villegas, this is aged in barriques.
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).
One of the few northwestern Spanish regions with a focus on a red variety, Bierzo, part of Castilla y León, is home to the flowery and fruity Mencia grape. Mencia produces balanced and bright red wines full of strawberry, raspberry, pomegranate, baking spice, pepper and black licorice. The well-drained soils of Bierzo are slate and granite.