Winemaker Notes
This flagship bottling comes from assorted vineyards (including A Pedreira, the original source) in Padrenda, Cambados, Meaño and Sanxenxo on decomposed granite and schist, 40 years old on average.
Blend: 100% Albariño
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This has austere aromas of wet stones and restrained ripeness. The tense, incisive and mouthwatering palate is precise, with a lovely texture. This comes from a single parcel and ages for around 11 months in used barrels. A good value.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The young 2024 A Pedreira is serious and austere, subtle, still a tad reductive but following the house style of whites that are clean, elegant and very tasty and with a subtle salty twist in the finish. It was produced with grapes from very white sandy soils in Meaño, Padrenda and Sanxenxo and fermented in oak (barrels and foudres) and 30% in stainless steel, where it matured for four to six months. I think this will be even better with a couple of years in bottle. The work with oak is unnoticeable in the flavors or aromas, but it gives the wine nuance and complexity. It comes in at 13% alcohol, with a pH of 3.32 and 8.1 grams of acidity.
Rating: 94+ -
Vinous
The 2024 Albariño A Pedreira comes mainly from Meaño, with 70% of the wine aged in barrel. It offers aromas of flowers, acacia and tuberose over hints of lime and apple. The palate is dry, tense and marked by subtle oak. Still young, this will gain in expression with time.
Bright and aromatic with distinctive floral and fruity characteristics, Albariño has enjoyed a surge in popularity and an increase in plantings over the last couple of decades. Thick skins allow it to withstand the humid conditions of its homeland, Rías Baixas, Spain, free of malady, and produce a weighty but fresh white. Somm Secret—Albariño claims dual citizenship in Spain and Portugal. Under the name Alvarinho, it thrives in Portugal’s northwestern Vinho Verde region, which predictably, borders part of Spain’s Rías Baixas.
Named after the rías, or estuarine inlets, that flow as far as 20 miles inland, Rías Baixas is an Atlantic coastal region with a cool and wet maritime climate. The entire region claims soil based on granite bedrock, but the inlets create five subregions of slightly different growing environments for its prized white grape, Albariño.
Val do Salnés on the west coast is said to be the birthplace of Albariño; it is the coolest and wettest of all of the regions. Having been named as the original subregion, today it has the most area under vine and largest number of wineries.
Ribeira do Ulla in the north and inland along the Ulla River is the newest to be included. It is actually the birthplace of the Padrón pepper!
Soutomaior is the smallest region and is tucked up in the hills at the end of the inlet called Ria de Vigo. Its soils are light and sandy over granite.
O Rosal and Condado do Tea are the farthest south in Rías Baixas and their vineyards actually cover the northern slopes of the Miño River, facing the Vinho Verde region in Portugal on its southern bank.
Albariño gives this region its fame and covers 90% of the area under vine. Caiño blanco, Treixadura and Loureira as well as occasionally Torrontés and Godello are permitted in small amounts in blends with Albariño. Red grapes are not very popular but Mencía, Espadeiro and Caiño Tinto are permitted and grown.