Godello
Godello is a white wine grape grown mainly in northwestern Spain, especially in Valdeorras (Galicia) and El Bierzo (León). It matters because it recovered from a long decline to become the most important variety of the Valdeorras DO, and because it produces wines with lively acidity and a distinctive character.
History
The exact origin of Godello is not firmly established. Several old authors mention the variety in different periods, but those references do not allow us to be certain that they describe the grape grown today. The oldest surviving vineyards are in the Tierra del Vino DO, in Villamor de los Escuderos (Zamora), where vines planted around 1800 still produce wines of unusual character.
The best-documented episode of its modern revival took place in Galicia. In 1885 the grower José Ramón Gayoso planted Godello in Valdeorras, at a time when phylloxera had pushed many producers to replace their vines with foreign varieties. His choice to back a native grape proved decisive for the area, and today Godello is the most important variety of the Valdeorras DO.
Plantings fell for a period but have since grown again. In Spain the area rose from 880 hectares in 2004 to 1,153 in 2008, and reached 1,194 hectares in 2016. The variety is also grown in Portugal, where it is known as gouveio and is concentrated in Trás-os-Montes. In 2016 Portugal had 2,050 hectares of gouveio, and in Trás-os-Montes it accounts for about 60 % of the vines in the region. It is generally believed that both names refer to the same grape, although an analysis of Portuguese gouveio has identified it as a cross between Savagnin and Castellana Blanca.
Culture
Godello is part of the winemaking identity of Valdeorras and El Bierzo, two areas of the northwest where vineyards shape both the landscape and the local economy. In Valdeorras it is made as a single-variety wine.
In the glass, Godello offers medium-high acidity and alcohol, a softly honeyed taste and an elegant bitterness that balances the fruit. When it is fermented and aged in oak barrels, it can develop more complex aromas of fruit and flowers, with notes of almond. A recent milestone was the 90 points that the critic Jay Miller, writing for Robert Parker's publication, gave in 2011 to a 2010 Godello called Rúa. That result suggested the variety could produce wines comparable to the best of the Rías Baixas DO.
In the vineyard it buds early and ripens very early, with medium-high vigour and an upright habit. Its fertility is high, and it yields more than Albariño. It needs medium pruning, suits dry soils, and is not very susceptible to botrytis, with medium sensitivity to downy and powdery mildew. To recognise it in El Bierzo, growers look between fruit set and veraison at the very open petiolar sinus, shaped like a bracket, the green shoot with red stripes, the underside of the leaf, which is less woolly than that of Doña Blanca, and the small cluster of slightly elliptical berries.
The variety has many synonyms, such as ojo de gallo, trincadente or verdello, which reflects its presence in different areas over time. The sources consulted do not record festivals or rituals specific to Godello, so none are described here.
Legend and fact
A story circulates that Godello comes from Godella, a town in Valencia, where according to that version it was first planted in the 19th century by a local landowner and later reached Galicia through a Galician trader in the early 1920s. The idea appears in some sources, but there is no conclusive evidence to support it. What is better documented is Gayoso's planting in Valdeorras in 1885.