Bodegas Gerardo Mendez Albarino Do Ferreiro 'Cepas Vellas' 2022

2022 Bodegas Gerardo Mendez Albarino Do Ferreiro 'Cepas Vellas'

96 pts Wine Advocate
Drink Date: 2025 - 2032
The 2022 Albariño Cepas Vellas feels quite reductive and difficult to read on the nose. It took time to open up, but the palate showed the depth, balance and clout of the wine from minute one. It's dense and intense, with crystalline purity and great length, leaving a strong rocky sensation like the old vines really feed on the granite. 9,000 bottles were produced. It was bottled in August 2023.

• Site: Meaño, Salnés Valley at 150-250m
• Grapes: Albariño
• Vine Age: Vineyard planted in 1785, with the current vines being over 200 years old
• Soil: Sabrego (decomposed granite and sand)
• Vinification: Fermented with native yeasts in stainless steel
• Aging: 11 months on the lees
• Farming: Practicing organic

Do Ferreiro Cepas Vellas comes from very old vines, some of which are around 200 years old. The vines spread over less than one hectare of land, on sandy soils with a granitic rock bed. From these vines they only produce between 5,000 and 9,000 litres, depending on the vintage. 10% of the grapes are left on the vine so that they reach botrytis noble state, and the harvest is completely manual.

In the winery, the grapes are destemmed and then undergo cold film maceration. Then the Do Ferreiro Cepas Vellas grapes are pressed and the must ferments using the ‘pie de cuba’ method. Finally the wine rests on its own fine lees in stainless steel tanks for about 12 months.

Do Ferreiro Cepas Vellas is an elegant white wine with excellent density and complexity. A small production from one estate that is smaller then one hectare and only made in years when the grapes are in the best condition.