La Perdida

Larouco - Galicia

We visited Nacho Gonzalez of La Perdida in June 2023 having admired and enjoyed his wines for a number of years but never having had the opportunity to visit.

Nacho's cellar is in Larouco at the heart of Valdeorras in Galicia in Spain's northwesternmost corner. This area has, for a number of years, attracted Spain's larger multi-regional wineries who jostle for the area's flatter fertile land on which the productive Godello thrives. Away from these plots, at higher altitude and on steeper slopes you can find parcels of old vines mostly co plantations of red and white varieties: palomino, dona branca, godello, garnacha tintorera, mouraton, merenzao (trousseau!) and sumol.

In 2011 Nacho inherited one such parcel of 70 year old vines from his grandmother - O Trancado - and so began his life as a winemaker. Keen to preserve the region's vine growing traditions he began accumulating parcels mainly around Larouco and now works just over 5 hectares split into around 32 parcels of old vines. The wines are planted in gobelet on a mix of granite and clay soils and made up predominantly of garnacha tintorera (alicante bouschet) and palomino. All vineyard work is done by hand and Nacho, a biologist by training, is fascinated by soil health and the micro organisms that help the vine do what it needs.

In the cellar, whites see a little maceration, the "reds" longer but with gradual removal of skins from the fermenting must. After fermentation the wines move down into a lower level cellar where they are aged in a mix of clay tinajas and old oak barrels for 10 months or so.

Nacho's white wines are fresh and lifted with a real salty twang that supports the structure given by the maceration. His reds are mind-boggling expressions of single vineyards and really show why the area has been prized for winemaking since the time of the Romans.