Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Branco de Santa Cruz was cropped from a warm and dry vintage marked by a spring that resulted in an early harvest of a shorter crop. It's a field blend of Godello, Treixadura, Doña Blanca, Palomino and other varieties from the village of Santa Cruz at 600 meters in altitude on granite soils. It fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured in oak barriques and foudres of different sizes for 10 months. Despite the difficulties of the vintage, and with the advantage of some time in bottle, the wine is showing very well. They might not like my saying so, but the wine has a somewhat Burgundian profile with the Godello character. It's a little more Mediterranean, with aromatic herbs, hay, straw and pollen, good volume and a bitter twist in the finish. This is a triumph over the conditions of the vintage.
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).
Just to the south of Bierzo, the steeply terraced Valdeorras Spanish wine region is a respected source of both red and white wines. Garnacha Tintorera (Alicante Bouschet) and Mencía are the principal red varieties while Godello and Palomino compose the majority of this region's whites.