Description
One of the foremost and renown Rias Baixas producers of Albarino! And always one of the highest rated, but not easy to find in California’s marketplace.
Albarino is most prevalently grown along Rias Baixas coastline of the Atlantic Ocean, in the rolling hills of Galicia in northwest Spain. Rias Baixas is one of the rainiest areas in Spain, with an average annual rain fall of 63 inches. Vines were planted between 1952-1982 and grow on the traditional granite pergola trellis on pure granite with layers of sand and alluvial soil. Organic farming is practiced. Fermentations are spontaneous from the native yeast. Zero malolactic fermentation.
This Albarino represents the character of the Valle del Salnés, but more specifically it is sourced from 200-years old vines from the Finca Genoveva. Vinified and matured in 2,500-liter oak foudres for one year on its lees until bottling, but there is no evidence of oak on display. Forjas del Salnés doesn’t put its wines through malolactic, as they wait for good ripeness and lower levels of malic acidity. This wine is intensely clean, crystalline, pure and precise. Like all great Albarino, the high acidity is awash with bright and intense citrus and briny minerality accentuating freshness and vibrancy to make one salivate. Almost too much of a good thing, I would hold this “power-house” for another year or two to allow it to “simmer down” and come into its own.
“The 2022 Leirana Finca Genoveva shows very complete, combining power and elegance, volume and length, roundness and freshness, with good ripeness, slightly higher alcohol (12.9%) and amazing freshness and acidity parameters (pH 3.12 and 8.08 grams of acidity). It should be long lived in bottle. 5,000 bottles were filled in August 2023.” – 96+ points, Wine Advocate