Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Leirana Finca Genoveva is sharp as a razor with volume, from an exceptional harvest that was bottled with 12.7% alcohol, a pH of 3.0 and 10.18 grams of acidity, but still it has incredible depth and power. It's a very intense and pungent Genoveva, super mineral, with effervescent acidity that makes you salivate. It's long and pungent, incredibly intense and young. This is going to develop wonderfully in bottle. Awesome! This has to be the best vintage of Genoveva ever. 4,000 bottles were filled in September 2016.
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Wine & Spirits
Rodrigo Mendez estimates that the albarino vines at this six-acre vineyard must be at least 180 years old. They produce concentrated grapes, creating a wine that tastes more like seawater than juice from a fruit. Take a sip and it will transport you to the shores of Rias Baixas, the sea bringing seafood and fish for lunch in the summer. The wine is citric and herbal, mineral and saline, its texture so tense that it seems electric. It’s inevitable that you’ll order another glass and another dish of pulpo a feira.
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James Suckling
A very tangy and fresh white with lemon-rind, lime and melon character. Intense acidity. Full body and a dense palate but this remains lively and beautiful due to the searing acidity.
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Wine Spectator
Briny and mineral notes frame peach, quince and floral flavors in this alluring white. Firm acidity supports the filigreed texture. Lovely tangerine and spice notes emerge on the finish. Shows rapier elegance.
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.