Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 La Caña Navia comes from two separate vineyards and is 100% Albarino. It has a beautifully pure, almost crystalline-like profile of bright citrus and lime fruits, crushed stone, sappy flowers, and mint. I love its overall balance, and it's medium-bodied, with a great mid-palate, integrated acidity, and a terrific finish
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James Suckling
A sophisticated albarino that you need to take seriously. There is almost a Burgundian touch to this, with its fine, flinty oak, lemon zest, seashells and berries. Salty and bright, with lots of nerve and texture to the taut, medium- to full-bodied palate. Pretty long, saline and energetic. Drink or hold.
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Vinous
The 2022 Albariño La Caña Navia originates from Meaño and Cambados in Salnés. The 2022 fermented and aged for eight months in oak barrels. Intense yellow in hue, the wine highlights oak aromas alongside white fruit, papaya, pineapple, honey and hazelnut notes. Precise and full-bodied, it has good acidity and a seamlessly integrated oak influence, finishing.
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Wine Spectator
Firm and focused, with lip-smacking acidity and a streak of salinity defining the flavors of guava, passion fruit, tangerine peel, lemon thyme, vanilla and salted almond. Long and racy on the finish. Best from 2025 through 2030. 1,250 cases made, 850 cases imported.
Jorge Ordóñez was the first person to introduce Albariño to the United States in 1991. Told he would never sell more than 100 cases of Albariño in New York City, he persevered, and now owns a winery in the Valle of Salnés, the best appellation of D.O. Rias Baixas.
When Jorge first traveled to Rías Baixas, the D.O. did not officially exist. What he found was a rich culture of family viticulture and winemaking. Most families had small plots of Albariño planted on pergolas built with posts taken from the mother rock – granite. Most of this Albariño was fermented and aged on the lees in large chestnut foudres.
Named for the straw-like cañas (reeds or canes) that line the shores of the Atlantic inlets that carve into the granite coast of Galicia, the winery’s philosophy is to produce a traditional, authentic, and serious Albariño, in the style of the artisan wines that Ordóñez discovered when he first arrived in the appellation in 1991.
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.