Cesar Marquez 'La Salvacion Godello' 2019

My first exposure to Godello was back in 2013. I had just left Canlis to start a new Spanish restaurant with my friend and mentor, Chris Tanghe. He had just passed his Master Sommelier exam and I was about to sit my first attempt at theory. Aragona was the culmination of our desire to create an awesome regional wine list, with our hope being to introduce people to new things they'd never had (I've never lost that fire, thankfully). We spent months tweaking our wine list, tasting with reps across Seattle, and sourcing cool and obscure grapes from across Spain and the Mediterranean. It was a time of amazing exposure to new wines and grapes that I'd never had, and one of the most exciting was Godello.

We tasted the wines of Rafael Palacios, and my mind was blown. I likened Godello to Chablis–it was salty and bright, yet thicker in texture, with slightly more ripe peach in contrast to Chablis' tart green apple notes. We immediately used it to pair with seafood dishes on our menu, like spot prawns and a wonderful black cod dish. It had the texture to pair with richer items, but the zippiness of a cool-climate European white grown near  the ocean.

It wasn't until more recently that I got to try the wines of César Marquéz. César Marquez may be the nephew of the famed Raul Pérez, and his family may own the Castro Ventosa winery, but he is every bit a worthy and great winemaker in his own right. César's Parajes Mencia was just in May's Circle release. But we were able to snag a few cases of his beautiful single-vineyard white, which is also on offer today. The 2019 La Salvación is a wonder to behold: a step up in texture from the Louro, it's an example of more concentrated, powerful Godello with real length and finish. Minerality and verve just ooze out of this wine. It comes from two 100 year-old vineyards, and less than 800 bottles are made a year. That's how limited and awesome this wine is. We only have 33 bottles to go around, so effectively 4% of Marquez's entire production of La Salvación is here at the warehouse!

Tasting Notes: Meyer lemon peel, Bosc pear, salted ube plum

Pairings: sailboats, salmon with beurre blanc, pondering your next move