Winemaker Notes
Albariño from La Val's vineyards located in the south of the Rías Baixas.
Intense straw yellow color with bright green flashes, very clean and striking. Intense Atlantic aromas of fresh herbs and laurels.
Suitable to accompany seafood and fish but also a magnificent host for fresh cheeses, foie, poultry and different rice and pasta dishes.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Typical albarino with seashells, chalk, nectarines and sea salt. Salty, flavorful and not complex, but this is a really gastronomic white for seafood.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 La Val is the Albariño from the different vineyards mixing granite, alluvial and slate soils. 2023 was an early harvest, when all the grapes were picked in August. The must fermented in stainless steel, where the wine was kept with the lees for three months. It has 12.5% alcohol with a pH of 3.38 and seven grams of acidity. It's varietal and clean, with notes of freshly cut grass, flowers and white fruit. It has a serious and dry palate that is clean, focused and precise.
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Vinous
The 2023 Albariño La Val hails from the southern Rías Baixas, where vines grow on alluvial soils with rounded stones at altitudes ranging, from 50 to 350 meters, using pergola and trellis systems. This wine showcases a bright greenish hue and delivers aromas of green apple, a hint of pear, tropical fruit and delicate herbal notes. On the palate, it offers a creamy yet fresh texture with a slight malic touch and a whisper of lees aging. The finish highlights fruit and subtle herbal undertones.
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.