{"product_id":"rafael-palacios-as-sortes-valdeorras-spain-2023","title":"Rafael Palacios 'As Sortes', Valdeorras, Spain, 2023","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs enjoyable as Godello can be from Valdeorras, it rarely reaches the level of richness, balance, and complexity as it does in Rafael Palacios’s hands. Having left his family’s estate in Rioja in 2004, Rafa settled in the Val do Bibei, a rugged and off-the-beaten-path sub-zone of Valdeorras. The Val do Bibei is a tortured landscape of granitic, terraced slopes dotted with hard-to-reach and hard-to-farm vineyard plots. Rafa works exclusively with Godello planted on granitic soils at much higher elevations – so high that late Spring snow and frost are ever-present dangers to his already low yields.  Rafa works 32 plots , known locally as Sorte, by hand where some of the oldest vines are nearing a century in age.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"The 2023 As Sortes reminded me of the 2021 vintage. It's perfumed, elegant and harmonious, with ripeness, elegance and freshness, with 14% alcohol and superb acidity that make it balanced and lifted up. It comes from six small vineyards (\"sorte\" locally) planted at the end of the 1970s and 1980s on the north face of the Bibei Valley at 680 meters above sea level on sandy granite soils that give the wine finesse and elegance. It fermented in 500-liter French oak barrels with indigenous yeasts and matured in those barrels with the fine lees for eight months. There's a sense of purity and precision that I like very much, while the texture has very fine granularity. It's very tasty and clean. 23,500 bottles produced.\"   - Luis Gutierrez, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWine Advocate 96\/100 points\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBiodynamic\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vinos Tito","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57771316838731,"sku":"Asortes23","price":74.5,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0530\/9838\/1481\/products\/as-sortes_bb545e0f-3abe-4c3b-9bc2-e48048a7b205.jpg?v=1647272325","url":"https:\/\/64wine.ie\/products\/rafael-palacios-as-sortes-valdeorras-spain-2023","provider":"64 Wine","version":"1.0","type":"link"}