Rafael Palacios: Sorte Antiga 2019

Parker über: Sorte Antiga

-- Parker: Like the Sorte O Soro, the Sorte Antiga was not produced in 2017 or 2018 and comes back with the 2019 Sorte Antiga. It comes from a plot of Godello planted in 1920 in the Val do Bibei on very shallow soils with no mica. They started experimenting with skin fermentation in 2014 and then released the 2016. This 2019 has a subtler effect of the skins, looking for a more traditional style by fermenting the destemmed grapes in a 1,500-liter oak vat at 22 degrees Celsius for 32 days. The wine matured with lees in used 500-liter French oak barrels for 11 months. It has 14% alcohol with a pH of 3.18 and seven grams of acidity. This vineyard is also in the process of being certified organic and biodynamic. It has a very mild effect of the skins, but a little more compared with the 2020. There is a high-pitched note of aniseed and fennel; it's aromatic, expressive and open. The palate is quite elegant, and there's none of the rusticity the skin contact can give. The time in contact with the skin is more or less the same, as it's marked by the fermentation time, but the difference is the pumping overs and pigéages, which are a lot softer. 980 bottles were filled in December 2020. In 2017, they suffered frost, and in 2018, the tropical (warm and rainy) summer decimated the crop with mildew. 95/100