Winemaker Notes
Rebisaca is blend of Treixadura from a vineyard site called Rebisaca in the Contado do Tea subzone and Albariño from the Salnes subzone. The wine was fermented with indigenous yeasts in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks and then aged on its lees for almost nine months before being bottled.
Aromas of bright melon fruit mingle with quince notes. On the palate the wine is rich and substantial.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The one non-Albariño wine the Méndez family produce is the Rebisaca, a blend of 70% Albariño, with 25% Treixadura and 5% Loureiro from Condado de Tea (not Salnés), of which I tasted two vintages, the younger of which was the excellent 2015 Rebisaca. This cuvée started in 1998, initially only for the U.S. market, but in 2013 they started selling it in Spain, too. Treixadura and Loureiro are fermented separately and then blended with the Albariño, making sure the strong balsamic aromas of Loureiro do not overpower the blend. This blend is usually quite shy until three years after the vintage, so we probably caught it in a very closed phase when the wine needed to breath in the glass. It's very different from the pure Albariño, with more herbal and stony aromas and less flowers and perfume. It has great structure from the Treixadura and a touch of complexity given by the Loureiro, and it usually reaches a perfect balance some five years after the harvest. The palate shows some austerity, too, but revealed the inner power, concentration and balance of the year.
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.