Winemaker Notes
This singular white wine opens up to intense layers of Meyer lemon and nectarine with a veil of salinity. The wine is bright, yet rich and elegant with serious structure, owing to its terroir.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There is a sensation of noble rot, dried apricots, honey and lanolin in the 2019 Albariño Cepas Vellas. They tell me the Cepas Vellas and Adana always have some noble rot and that the wines show it with age. It's pretty noticeable here, but it's not that obvious in the young 2020 that I tasted next to this. 2019 was a warmer and drier year that delivered low yields and concentrated wines. This is powerful but balanced and elegant; it is balanced by some austerity of the granite soils. Curiously enough, this has half a degree less alcohol than the 2020. There were 8,000 bottles produced.
-
Wine & Spirits
One of the treasures of Rías Baixas are the centenarian vines, trellised overhead and producing small yields of concentrated fruit. One such parcel grows in front of Gerardo Méndez’s home in Lores, along the Ría de Arousa in the Salnès Valley. Méndez has traced the history of these vines back to 1850 and believes them to be the oldest documented vines in the region (the 3.7 acres were originally planted in 1785 and he thinks the current vines are about 200 years old). Now working with his children, Manuel and Encarna, Méndez continues to use them exclusively to make Cepas Vellas. The Méndezes allow this to ferment without added yeasts, then to age for 11 months on the lees in stainless-steel tanks, producing an elegant white wine with remarkable flavor depth and length. In this 2019, scents of spring violets and white roses lift off a deep richness of brisk apple flavor. Crunchy, elastic and compellingly drinkable as a young wine, this has the potential to age for a decade or more.
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.