Bodegas Rafael Palacios

Without doubt at the top of his game, since founding his eponymous winery in 2004, Rafael Palacios has fast become one of Spain’s pre-eminent producers of white wine.

Working with old vines, yields are always small and there is a density and concentration that makes these some of the most ageworthy whites from Spain.

It is in the Val do Bibei in Valdeorras, Galicia that Palacios has 32 parcels of vines spread over 19.5 hectares. It is the dramatic hills and rocks that define this landscape, and these wines speak distinctly of their terroir. A real feature of these steep hillsides are the terraces buttressed by stones that make viticulture possible. These are old, fragile terraces that take almost as much attention as the vines themselves. Viticultural practices are sensitive to the landscape, low intervention, aiming to preserve this landscape for generations to come.