Ladeiras do Xil Branco de Santa Cruz Valdeorras 2020
Ladeiras do Xil Branco de Santa Cruz Valdeorras 2020
The pioneering duo of Pablo Eguzkiza and Telmo Rodríguez started working in the Val do Bibei in 2002. Recognizing the potential to make world-class wines in this historic valley, they began a project restoring vineyards that would take more than a decade to come to fruition.
Ladeiras do Xil is named for the hillsides along the Sil River (literally “slopes of the Sil”), which, along with the Miño River, is the lifeblood of the Ourense province, including the Valdeorras and Ribeira Sacra wine regions. Ladeiras do Xil produces a highly-coveted collection of extremely low-production, single-vineyard grand cru red wines: Valbuxán, As Caborcas, Falcoeira, and O Diviso, along with two white wines: Branco de Santa Cruz and Falcoeira Branco. All are field blends of indigenous grape varietals reflecting the purity and transcendence of one of the most exceptional terroirs in Europe. Ladeiras do Xil is a life’s project to recover and vindicate the exceptional sites along the Sil and Bibei rivers, uncovering their Grand Cru potential.
Branco de Santa Cruz is an authentic Galician premier cru single-village wine. “Branco,” which means “white” in Gallego, comes from vineyards near the ancient monastic village of Santa Cruz in O Bolo county, located in the Val do Bibei in the southern part of the Valdeorras appellation. Branco de Santa Cruz is a blend of old vine godello, treixadura, doña blanca, and palomino varieties from traditional co-planted, bush-trained vines on granitic soil, locally called sábrego. Terraced vineyards perched between 400 to 600 meters above the Bibei river are planted on steep slopes facing south, west, and northwest. Branco de Santa Cruz shows off godello’s textural similarities with white Burgundy; however, it comes across as more Mediterranean, with aromatic herbs, white flowers, hay, and honeycomb, with good volume and balanced acidity. Viticulture is organic, the grapes are hand-harvested, and wines are made with low intervention. Branco de Santa Cruz is extremely limited.
Vinification – Following a manual harvest, fermentation begins spontaneously with native yeasts in new and used French oak barrels and foudres of various sizes. The wine is then aged for ten months in these same vessels before being fined with isinglass and bottled without filtration.