Winemaker Notes
Marked by Do Ferreiro's signature salinity, the 2020 vintage is mineral-driven with balanced acidity. Ripe stonefruit, green apple, and a rounded body shine through making this a quintessential portrait of Rías Baixas.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A blend of different zones and terroirs and the wine that defines the winery is the 2020 Albariño. It is serious and balanced, complex and very complete, with 13% alcohol, fully developed flavors and aromas and a harmonious palate with vibrant acidity and a strong mineral/stony strike. This is very dry, varietal and really representative of the Salnés. It has an expressive nose with notes of Albariño pulp, from a year with some noble rot that adds aromatic complexity. It's expressive and harmonious and combines power and freshness. It's an austere vintage with more malic acid than 2019, which Manuel Méndez insisted on comparing with 2016. This was bottled after nine months with the lees. There are different lots, and the bottling date is always printed on the back label. It should develop nicely in bottle. There are some 80,000 bottles. We tasted a bottle of the 2015, which I think might have some similarities with 2020, and the wine is superb today. They also uncorked a 2012, from a cold vintage when they didn't produce a Cepas Vellas, and think it could be a vintage with similarities to 2021. I look forward to the 2021.
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.