As summer is wrapping up and entering into the amazing autumn months, it seems I find my palate beginning to crave new things.  It isn’t time to build a fire, or to turn off the water supply knowing frost is coming, or even time to dive into the fall squash bins quite yet; but things seem to be changing slightly each day.  The sun is dropping earlier each night, the burn of the sun wanes a bit quicker, and the evenings seem to hold a chorus of glorious angels shining through the trees because it’s the time of year that I… consider perfect.

However, I find a dilemma as this all approaches because I still want the refreshing, delicious juice I enjoyed all summer to continue its dance on my palate each night, but I want it to excite me for the heavier wines coming soon with the cold air.  I’m done with the cheek-zinging Sauvignon Blancs, the bright toned Pinot Grigios, and the fresh Gruner Veltliners, but I don’t want to leave the way they remind me of wonderful summer.  So the wine that’s knocking my socks of right now... Godello.

A grape hailing from Northwest Spain’s Galicia region, where Albariño also comes from, Godello (pronounced Go-Day-Oh) is a grape that grows further inland than its popular roommate, and has become a favorite among the wine geeks of the world, but still has a while until it takes over the rest of the planet (which it will!).  Being the same grape as Verdelho of Portugal, but not to be confused with Verdejo from Spain, the grapes most famous home is in the D.O. Valdeorras, about 100 miles east of the Atlantic coast.

My first taste of this crazy-delicious white was about 2 ½ years ago with some colleagues, as we cracked a bottle of arguably the greatest Godello available in Spain (and the world): Rafael Palacios’ “As Sortes”.  A wine that sees about 8 months in barrel before being bottled, which isn’t necessarily the common ‘traditional’ practice of Valdeorras, but the result is unmistakably phenomenal.  Last week, I had the priceless experience of meeting the esteemed Eric Solomon (famous Spanish & French wine importer), and it began with a glass of his 2009 “As Sortes.”  It brought me right back to the first time I tasted this luscious grape, and inspired me to write this post.

As Mr. Solomon suggested, this varietal could be Spain’s answer to France’s refined and scrumptious Chablis.  I find myself agreeing with each Godello I crack.  A variety with such class, such elegance, and so much prowess that it begs for a beautiful sunset to accompany your sips.  Refreshing, yet it holds weight with each sip.  Stone fruits, lemon, and bits of flowers occupy the palate; not to mention that its versatility with food is pretty stunning.   

As for our Godello from Valdeorras?… a bit more toward the traditional preparation; unoaked, clean, well-built, and has a texture that puts this distinctive varietal in its place.  Bodegas Ruchel, a small, family owned estate of Luciano Amoedo, that puts sustainable and natural farming practices to work in order to create their beautiful wines.  I opened a bottle the other night to find it so enticingly tasty, and so very fitting for this ‘mood’ my palate has been trying to find.  Loads of lemon (and all of the lemon: zest, pulp, juice) and mineral, lifted by bits of honeysuckle, and topped with a touch of the freshly browned meringue of my grandmother’s legendary lemon meringue pie!  A stunningly good bottle of white, that I think will someday be part of the Godello revolution that sets Americans crazy for this late summer white!  As we all sat and sipped this wine on the patio, it got me stoked for this ‘interim’ phase of wine drinking.

If you have yet to check out 'The Wine Brothers,' watch this video on Bodegas Ruchel... beautiful wines... beautiful Godello.