Rafael Palacios, or Rafa as he is known to most people, began his Valdeorras project project in 2004. Setting up shop in the sub-zone of Valle del Bibei in the village of O Bolo, he began seeking out plots, Sortes in local Galician dialect, planted to the indigenous Godello varietal from older and retiring growers. The extremely difficult topography and soils of minimal fertility combined with the economic depression of the past century had driven most of the growers off the land and most of these sortes, fully terraced, were being passed down under-used or abandoned through inheritance.

O Lobo is located at the foot of the Ourense massif, some 50km directly east of the regional capital bearing the same name. The massif is a solid granite mountain where the weather is more continental, (hot summers, cold winters) than wine growing areas closer to the Atlantic. The high elevation of the growing sites, ranging from 620-740 meters only accentuates this phenomenon. The vineyards are graced with very poor sandy soils that are essentially decomposed granite, and most all plots are terraced and require being worked by hand, sometimes with the help of horses.