Rafael Palacios Rafael Palacios Louro 2023 750ml

With another year in bottle, the 2023 Louro Do Bolo displays more floral, herbal, salinity qualities than the more newly released 2024, and less upfront fruit. A tight, focused palate of tension and energy underscores the vintage’s fresh, age-worthy acidity and structure. This is a gastronomic wine that’s mineral and saline, well-integrated, and long-lived. Drink now through 2035.

The young, balsamic and still faintly medicinal entry-level white 2023 Louro is dense, ripe and powerful at 13.9% alcohol, pungent and intense with a bitter twist in the finish. It's very tasty, almost salty, with cleanliness and precision, combining power with freshness and elegance. This is quite impressive and a preview of the rest of the 2023s to come. 215,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2024. (Luis Gutiérrez)

The youngest of the portfolio is the 2024 Louro, which has a balsamic, herbal and faintly medicinal nose (it does smell a little of bay leaf, which is what "louro" means in the Galician language!), quite aromatic. It fermented in 3,500-liter oak foudres, where the wine matured with the lees for four months. It doesn't lack ripeness; it comes in at 14% alcohol but retains good freshness and acidity. It's approachable and has a tender texture. They produced 185,000 bottles. It was bottled between April and May 2025.