On June 18, 2020, the latest report by Luis Gutiérrez (The Wine Advocate – Parker) on Spain, Galicia: Valdeorras was made public.
In this report it is said of Virgen del Galir:
“This first effort is impresive”
So, place matters, and that’s why I’m so happy to see the approach taken by CVNE (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España) from Rioja after they bought Virgen del Galir, a small family winery created in 2002 in the O Barco zone of Valdeorras and purchased by CVNE between 2017 and 2018. Since then, CVNE has replanted and recovered some more vineyards and now produces 90,000 bottles divided among a complete range in a pyramid structure following the Burgundian model. They are situated in the village of Éntoma in the Galir Valley, a tributary to the Sil.
The high-level idea for the top ranges of whites is that they all come from the same zone where Guitián is located in the Galir Valley, a zone with lots of slate but not a lot of vineyards, though they are at high altitude. Their reds are sourced from different zones, but at the top of the hierarchy, they are mainly from the Bibei Valley on granite soils.
They already have seven different wines (the red Pagos del Galir that I got was not in good shape), so you have to understand the range, but whithin their main vineyard A Malosa, they have a diversity of altitudes and expositions that could deliver a number of different wines… But this first effort is very impressive, and they have a good geographical approach to the wines, escaping the young-lees-barrique structure of too many.
The newly planted Amalosa vineyard from Virgen del Galir has 21 hectares with different altitudes and expositions.
Pagos del Galir Godello 2019 – 91 puntos
A Villeira 2018 – 93 puntos
Regueiron 2018 – 93 puntos
Los Carismaticos 2018 – 93 puntos