July 2025 Blanco y Branco Club
 |
Bodegas Carballal 2024
|
This month, we’re thrilled to feature two wines from Bodegas Carballal, a family-run estate in the Salnés Valley the historic heart of Rías Baixas and birthplace of the Albariño grape. Recognized as a Denomination of Origin (DO) in 1988, Rías Baixas now includes over 150 wineries across five subzones, all influenced by the region’s Atlantic climate and low-lying, coastal geography. Bodegas Carballal’s connection to the region runs deep.
The family’s patriarch, Benito Vázquez, was one of the original growers who helped establish the DO. Today, the winery continues to champion pure, expressive Albariño from their organically farmed vineyards in Salnés.
Tasting these two wines side by side Sete Cepas and the En Rama bottling offers a glimpse into just how much character Albariño can show when made with care and intention.
From the windswept Salnés Valley in Rías Baixas, widely considered the birthplace of Albariño, comes this vivid, salt-tinged expression from Bodegas Carballal. The Carballal family has farmed these granite-rich vineyards for generations, using organic practices and working gently in the cellar. The name ”Sete Cepas” (Seven Vines) honors the seven brothers who now carry on the family’s winemaking tradition.
The 2024 vintage is fermented with native yeasts and aged on fine lees for just the right amount of time, giving it energy and texture without weight. What I love about this wine is its immediacy, it opens with aromas of citrus blossom and white peach, and follows through with mouthwatering acidity and a whisper of sea spray on the finish. It’s the kind of Albariño you want to drink cold on a sunny afternoon, especially with oysters or grilled shrimp. Pure and bright, this is classic coastal Galicia in a glass.
 |
Bodegas Carballal 2024
|
If Sete Cepas is the breezy, youthful side of Albariño, Carballal’s Albariño En Rama is its more introspective sibling. “En Rama” roughly translates to “raw” or “in its natural state” a term borrowed from the sherry world that signals a wine bottled with minimal filtration and intervention. Here, the result is a deeper, more of a textured version of Albariño that still holds on to the grape’s essential freshness.
Made from older vines and aged longer on its lees, the wine shows a beautiful evolution in the glass. Aromatically, it’s definitely more complex: think white flowers, preserved lemon, and a touch of almond skin. On the palate, it’s creamier and broader than the Sete Cepas, but not heavy at all. There’s a quiet intensity to it, something savory and mineral under the fruit, like wet stones or a sea breeze rolling through fog.
Tasting it next to the Sete Cepas is a reminder of how much range Albariño has when handled thoughtfully. It’s not just a summer sipping wine, it’s a serious, age-worthy white with lots of layers.
Albariño is often considered a “summer wine,” and while it certainly shines in warm weather, these two bottles from Bodegas Carballal show there’s far more to explore. The 2024 Sete Cepas offers the clean, coastal lift we love, while the En Rama invites a slower sip, something to return as it opens up.
Together, they tell a story of place, and a grape that’s far more versatile than it often gets credit for. We hope you enjoy diving in.
 |
Rafael Palacios
|
We’ve been fans of Rafael Palacios’ here at The Spanish Table for a while, and it’s been a joy watching more people discover just how compelling Godello can be in the right hands. Rafael is part of Spain’s famous Palacios Remondo winemaking family, the youngest of nine siblings! (Yes, that includes his brother Álvaro, who helped put Priorat back on the map.) But Rafael took a different path. After studying winemaking in Bordeaux and working a stint in Australia, he returned to the family estate in Rioja and focused on white wine. He created this really beautiful wine called Placet, but when his father passed away in 2000, Rafael felt the pull to do something of his own. By 2004, he packed up and moved to the remote, high-altitude Val do Bibei in Galicia’s Valdeorras region where he found his calling in Godello.
This month’s featured wine, Louro Do Bolo, is a fantastic introduction to what Rafael does best. It’s made from hand-harvested Godello grapes grown in granitic soils across 26 tiny vineyard parcels that Rafael has either purchased or rented over the years. The grape itself is a bit tricky, small bunches, fragile shoots, and a unique balance of acids that make it wonderfully textured yet fresh. Rafael ferments Louro in large, conical oak foudres (not oval, he says lees settle more evenly this way), and he’s a firm believer that when oak is used right with just the right oxygen exchange it makes wines that are actually cleaner and fresher. The result is a wine that’s full of personality: citrus peel, pear skin, wild herbs, and a touch of saline minerality that brings you right to the Atlantic. There's a subtle creaminess from the lees aging, but the overall feeling is lifted and vibrant.
It’s one of those wines we love introducing to people. It's great with seafood, roast chicken, grilled vegetables, or just a warm night on the patio. Rafael might have stepped away from the spotlight, but he’s quietly making some of the best white wines in Spain, and we’re thrilled to share Louro with you this month.
Share this
Popular posts
