Do Ferreiro Albariño Rias Baixas 2016
Forjas del Salnes
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$42.99
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2016 Albariño Rias Baixas 92WA/92VM
Do Ferreiro
Rias Baixas
Galicia, Spain
92 pts Vinous
Brilliant, green-hued straw. Bright and incisive on the highly perfumed nose displaying an array of fresh citrus and orchard fruit scents that are complemented by suggestions of chalky minerals, quinine and sea salt. Dry, taut and precise on the palate, offering bitter lemon pith and pear skin flavors that unfold slowly while maintaining urgency. Finishes with impressive clarity and mineral drive, leaving juicy Meyer lemon and quince notes behind. - By Josh Raynolds on December 2018
92 pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Méndez family consider 2016 a vintage with some similarities with 2011. I tasted their regular 2016 Albariño, which is produced from a mix of grapes from the 164 plots of vines they work, adding diversity of soils, mostly granite and sand but also red slate, and expositions in the villages of Meaño, Adina, Sisán, Castelo and Leiro. The grapes were picked in five days, starting on September 17th. All wines fermented with a "pied de cuve" from the Cepas Vellas, which fermented the juice from the destemmed grapes. The wine is kept with fine lees for a period of time that can range between four and up to 11 months. It has a fresh and balanced nose, with notes of good freshness—quite striking for a warmish year—with citrus notes intermixed with hints of white flowers and fruit. It's a more powerful year, with 13.5% alcohol, but has great acidity and freshness. The palate is focused and delineated, with great purity and very tasty flavors. It has great mid-palate and concentration. A surprise. It's one of the finest young Do Ferreiros I remember. This should evolve nicely in bottle. 85,000 bottles produced and bottled in ten different lots. I tasted a bottle from May 2017; they now have all the bottling dates on the labels.
Vinification – Bunches are hand-selected in the vineyard, handpicked, and placed in small crates. Grapes are destemmed, cold-macerated for a few hours, and pressed. A natural yeast fermentation begins using a pied de cuve from the winery’s historic Cepas Vellas vineyard, followed by aging on the lees for six to nine months without bâtonnage in stainless steel tanks. No malolactic fermentation, unfiltered, light bentonite fining.
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Site: Meaño, Salnés Valley at 150-250m
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Vine Age: 20-120+ years old
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Soil: Decomposed granite and sand – sábrego
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Farming: Practicing organic
Do Ferreiro is a benchmark Albariño. Every year, it delivers the goods, showing a degree of aromatic complexity, nervy minerality, and pure intensity of flavor that always makes it stand out from the rest. Delicious upon release, it is also one of the few Albariños to improve in bottle for up to a decade (maybe longer?) beyond the vintage year. There is bright fruit intermingling with the classic Do Ferreiro salty/smoky mineral bite. Enjoy this wine on its own or with all types of seafood.