As Sortes 2021

Crítica

2020 > 95+ puntos
As with the other wines, I also tasted the 2020 As Sortes next to the 2019. The vineyards and process were the same, native fermentation in 500-liter French oak barrels, where the wine matured with fine lees for eight months. But 2020 is riper than 2019 (14.4% vs 14%), and it also has a lower pH and higher acidity. Like the Louro, this feels closed, primary and a little reductive at first. It took time in the glass to open up. The vineyards here are able to cushion the effect of the vintage, and the viticulture they have been doing (organic and biodynamic) makes for concentrated wines that are also more closed early on and then need more time in bottle. The palate references a very mineral wine with a powerful mineral strike. It improved tremendously in the glass over the course of a couple of hours. 18,500 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2021.
2019 > 96 puntos
The 2019 As Sortes always wears the subtitle Val do Bibei, which is a specific and different zone of Valdeorras where Palacios has his vineyards. This comes from six small plots or "sortes" planted in the 1970s and 1980s on north-facing terraces at 680 meters in altitude and higher in the village of Santa Cruz do Bolo on poor, low-yielding sandy granite soils worked organically and biodynamically but not certified. The destemmed grapes had a short fermentation in the press, and the juice was put to ferment with indigenous yeasts in 500-liter French oak barrels, where the wine matured with lees for eight months. It's powerful (14% alcohol) and fresh (pH 2.15). It has a captivating and nuanced nose, elegant and subtle, floral and citrus with lots of herbs, faintly balsamic. It has a lively palate with great depth of flavors, perfect ripeness and great harmony. Complex, noble and harmonious, it's a very pretty vintage for this powerful white. 21,200 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2020.
2018 > 95 puntos
The 2018 As Sortes comes from the six oldest small plots of Palacios vineyards, bought between 2004 and 2007, and the vines are worked organically. The vines were planted in the late 1970s/early 1980s, and the soils are granite based and deliver low yields. In 2018, they did a lot of sorting of grapes to remove dry grapes affected by mildew. The clear juice ferments in 500-liter oak barrels, and the wine matured with fine lees in those barrels and also in some foudres for eight months. It has a very Burgundian profile. I must say it's quite different from the majority of whites from Valdeorras; it's super serious and somewhat austere, and subtle, a profile I like very much. Austere, direct and salty/mineral, like liquid granite. It's polished and the oak is nicely integrated. They are working to have less imprint from the oak in the wine by using larger barrels. This is less oaky and leesy, with more precision, clean and pure, in the direction of Roulot, if you want to continue in Burgundy. This could be an updated version of 2011, even though 2011 was riper and this 2018 is fresher. 22,400 bottles produced. It was bottled in September 2019.