Description
Region: Spain
Appellation: Rias Baixas
Color/Style: Red, Medium Bodied
Grapes: Caino, Mencia
Caiño and Mencía from several parcels in Rías Baixas. The vines range in age from 15-95 years and are planted on sandy and granitic soils. The grapes were harvested by hand, sorted, and foot-trod in plastic vats, with the Caiño and the Mencía separated. Native yeast fermentation began while the juice macerated with its skins for 21 days before pressing in a vertical press. Malolactic fermentation completed in used French oak barrels and stainless-steel tanks, where the wine rested until bottling.
Alberto Nanclares and Silvia Prieto make transparent, Atlantic-influenced wines, mainly with Albariño from old vines around the village of Cambados. Employing organic farming practices and a restrained hand in the cellar, the pair have managed something very rare: the refinement of Albariño into angular, age-worthy wines that express the fascinating terruños of Cambados and Rías Baixas.
The essence of their approach is reverence for the vineyard, from organic farming to fermentation by native yeasts: "In the winery, we respect the grapes as much as possible, we don't use any winemaking additions besides moderate amounts of SO2. We do not ferment with pie de cuba (pied-de-cuve) in order to preserve the identity of each vineyard," Alberto says. To express the edginess of the naturally high in acidity Albariño grape, he eschews adding potassium, which is what many in Rías Baixas use to de-acidify and soften their wines. Malolactic fermentation rarely occurs, and the wines spend a good amount of time (often a year or more) on their lees before being bottled without clarification or filtration.
