Winemaker Notes
Do Ferreiro Albariño is a blend of the best fruit from different zones and terroirs within the Salnés Valley and it is the wine that defines the winery. It is serious and balanced, complex and very complete with fully developed aromas and flavors, with a long, harmonious palate featuring vibrant acidity and a strong mineral, stony component. Do Ferreiro is a very dry, varietally correct wine that is really representative of the Salnés Valley terruño. Expressive and harmonious, combining power and freshness; Do Ferreiro Albariño is capable of developing in bottle for 10 years or more.
Vegan-Friendly
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Albariño, which represents their take of the vintage, was produced with grapes from 165 hectares of the 14 hectares they own. It goes back to the alcoholic degree of 2021, 12.5%, compared with the 13.5% of 2022. 2023 seems to be somewhere in between those two previous vintages: cooler and with a better distribution of rain than in 2022 but with warmer temperatures than 2021. The wine is still very young and primary, a little reductive even, with a balsamic hint that should go away with a little more time in bottle. This matures in stainless steel with lees until it's bottled. It has varietal notes of white flowers and grass. It's fresh and balanced, light to medium-bodied, easy to drink, sapid and tasty, with an almost salty twist in the finish despite its young age. It has a pH of 3.2 after going through full malolactic. There will be around 95,000 bottles, but not all the wine has been bottled yet, kept in stainless steel with the lees and the natural carbonic gas. The bottle I tasted was bottled in May 2024, but all bottles have the bottling date on the back label.
Rating: 93+
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.