2024 Almalarga Godello Ribeira Sacra DOC, Spain

The nose leads with wet slate and crushed stone, then lemon peel, white peach, and quince, with a quiet white-floral note underneath. The palate is taut and saline, carrying orchard fruit apple, underripe pear, over a creamy mid-palate built by lees contact, finishing long and chalky rather than fat.

Alma das Donas farms barely three hectares on the near-vertical slate and granite terraces above the River Sil, slopes so steep that fruit moves down to the winery on a rail system because nothing mechanized can work them — this is viticultura heroica in the literal sense. The estate is run by Lara Santos and her husband Roberto Flamini, an Italian who serves as head winemaker — a Galician wine shaped by an outsider's palate, which is part of why it reads with more precision than warmth. It's 100% Godello, stainless-fermented and aged four months on the lees, so everything in the glass is site and handling, not oak.