Unanimous Pick

It's hard to believe that a grape that produces such high quality wine was nearly extinct just a few decades ago. If you've never had a Godello, it's a savory, and fleshier option than its more famous Galician white grape: Albariño. This one opens with a vibrant, high-toned nose of green apple, lemon zest, and white peach, underscored by a distinctive saline minerality and hints of wild mountain herbs. The palate is impressively textured for an unoaked wine, offering a stony, crisp attack that evolves into a rounder mouthfeel with a refreshing, slightly savory edge. It concludes with a clean, bright finish that highlights the "heroic" slate and schist terroir of the Ribeira Sacra.

Founded in 1996 by pioneer Fernando González Riveiro in the Amandi subzone, Adega Algueira is a family-operated estate central to the revival of "heroic viticulture" in the Ribeira Sacra region. The winery manages over 100 small plots across 30 hectares of dramatic, ancient Roman terraces with slopes reaching up to 85 degrees, requiring all work to be performed entirely by hand. The 'Brandan' Godello 2024 is sourced from multiple sustainable vineyards in the Abeleda and Chantada regions, where grapes are grown on cool-climate, east and northeast-facing slopes. These sites feature a mix of granite and schist-slate soils, which, combined with a Mediterranean-Atlantic microclimate, impart the wine’s signature minerality and crisp acidity.