Winemaker Notes
Notes of citrus and fresh pineapple coupled with soft minearality. There are also tropical and orchard fruit aromas with good structure. Light floral and honey rich notes too with low acidity.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
With close to 400 acres of vines in O Rosal, Terras Gauda focuses this blend on a selection of albariño (70 percent) blended with loureiro and caiño blanco. The dry and relatively cool summer of 2019 produced a zesty wine with flavors of sweet pear and brisk grapefruit. It smells like salt air and tastes like crab roe, with the kind of funky richness that will enliven a range of creatures from the sea.
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The Somm Journal
A distinctive blend of 70% Albariño, 15% Caiño, and 15% Loureira makes for a complex white. Aromas of sea-salted pears and jasmine lead to a mineral-driven palate that strikes a chord of searing acidity. Undertones of anise link to the citrus finish.
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.