Rafael Palacios

Rafael Palacios is the younger brother of Alvaro Palacios and has spent the last two decades quietly making the case that Valdeorras, in inland Galicia, is one of Spain's most exciting wine regions. He works exclusively with Godello, a white variety grown at altitude on granitic soils, recovering old parcels that were close to being abandoned and farming them with real care.

The wines range from an immediate, precise bottling from younger vines through to a deeply mineral old-vine expression fermented and aged in barrel, from vines averaging over forty years old at more than six hundred and eighty metres above sea level. Both are worth knowing if you are interested in where white wine in Spain can go.