Critic Scores
The 2017 VO Cal was also in bottle and waiting to be released, as the 2016 was sold out at the winery. It had been in bottle for only one week when I tasted it, and it felt very young, tender and primary. It has incredible parameters: it's only 12.5% alcohol and has a pH of 2.77 and eight grams of acidity; with these numbers, Vernica decided to bottle the wine without any added sulfur, but it was filtered because it didn't go through malolactic. It's sharp and austere, narrow and long, vertical and very tasty, with a salty finish. Bony and mineral, this is completely different from other Godellosfrom Bierzo or elsewhere. It has a very Atlantic, cool-climate profile, very unlike the 2017 harvest that was the earliest ever after a warm and dry year that was also marked by frost. These grapes were harvested the 28th of August, two weeks earlier than normal. It should be really interesting to see this wine in another five years. 4,200 bottles were filled in December 2018. Since 2015 Vernica Ortega has vinified in her own small winery in Valtuille de Abajo, where I had the chance to visit. The progression has been tremendous, from 600 bottles in 2010 to the 45,000 she did in 2018. Elegant, perfumed wines from Bierzo. Most of the wines reviewed here are from the village of Valtuille, but there is one wine that comes from the village of Cobrana.
