Galicia Wine

Our Professional Review 

Oscar Garcia of 67Wine.com | Bodegas Chaves have been making wines since the 1950's with only Estate grown grapes. Their attention to detail is unrivaled. Tasting Notes: The 2022 vintage of Somm Series Albarino shows an enticing nose of tropical fruit: pineapple and passion fruit. Medium body with loads of freshness and crisp acidity. Green apples, white peaches and kiwi on the palate with a hint of salinity. Sensational finish. Pair with your favorite Spring and Summer Salads. - 

Expert Review - Vintage 2022 

91 Points Wine Enthusiast | This medium-yellow wine has a nose of pineapple and passion fruit. Vibrant acidity and white peach, mango, grapefruit and honeysuckle flavors sail into a floral-scented finish.

Memo Pairing Suggestions

As an Atlantic-influenced wine, it is naturally born to be paired with seafood:

• Seafood: Steamed clams, scallops, or grilled sea bass.

• Global Flavors: Its bright acidity makes it a fantastic partner for sushi, sashimi, or Vietnamese turmeric noodles.

• Cheese: Local Galician cheeses like San Simón (smoked) or a mild, creamy Tetilla.

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2023 

James Suckling 92 Points | A fresh and pure Rias Baixas that has notes of lemons, grapefruit and peaches on the nose. It's medium-bodied and saline with a refreshing finish. Vegan. Drink now.

Wine Spectator 90 Points | A lithe, mouthwatering white, with peach skin and nectarine, pickled ginger and jasmine notes. Well-balanced and fresh, with a tang of salinity driving the finish. Drink now. 12,500 cases made, 3,500 cases imported.

Expert Review - Vintage 2020

Luis Gutiérrez of The Wine Advocate 92+  Points | I love the simplicity of the red blend 2020 Candea Tinto, which is straightforward, tasty, juicy and balanced, without any excess or makeup, raw and authentic, with note of wild berries, flowers and herbs and a medium-bodied palate with moderate alcohol and nice balance. Highly drinkable. 14,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in September 2022.

Winemaker Description

Elegant red with a medium-high depth, slow, regular teardrops, and purple nuances. Deep nose of red and stone fruits (cherry, blackcurrant), compotes, fermentation notes, and sweet notes of wood and toasted aromas. Very direct attack, where freshness and the passage of time prevail. Aromatic nuances emerge at retronasal, calling for another sip to recall them.

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2023

The Wine Advocate 93+ Points | The 2023 Albariño, which represents their take of the vintage, was produced with grapes from 165 hectares of the 14 hectares they own. It goes back to the alcoholic degree of 2021, 12.5%, compared with the 13.5% of 2022. 2023 seems to be somewhere in between those two previous vintages: cooler and with a better distribution of rain than in 2022 but with warmer temperatures than 2021. The wine is still very young and primary, a little reductive even, with a balsamic hint that should go away with a little more time in bottle. This matures in stainless steel with lees until it's bottled. It has varietal notes of white flowers and grass. It's fresh and balanced, light to medium-bodied, easy to drink, sapid and tasty, with an almost salty twist in the finish despite its young age. It has a pH of 3.2 after going through full malolactic. There will be around 95,000 bottles, but not all the wine has been bottled yet, kept in stainless steel with the lees and the natural carbonic gas. The bottle I tasted was bottled in May 2024, but all bottles have the bottling date on the back label.

Tim Atkin, MW 93 Points | Pithy, nuanced, and poised, with aromas of laurel and wet stone, and flavors of lemongrass and green apple.

Peñín Guide to Spanish Wine 92 Points | White fruit, ripe fruit, hint of anise, and floral aroma, free-flowing.

Winemaker Description

Highly regarded for crafting world-class white wines from albariño with incredible transparency, flavor, and depth, Do Ferreiro has become a reference point for the variety. They farm over 175 tiny plots of albariño by hand, all located in the heart of the Salnés subzone of Rías Baixas. The valley’s proximity to the ocean, ideal climate due to the natural protection by mountain ranges, and decomposed granitic soil have gained the reputation for being the ideal region in Rías Baixas for producing profound, terruño-driven albariño wines capable of improving in bottle. Do Ferreiro does not blend other grape varieties into their albariño wines, as is common in Rías Baixas. Farming is practicing organic, and fermentations are exclusively carried out by native yeasts.

Do Ferreiro Albariño is a blend of the best fruit from different zones and terroirs within the Salnés Valley and it is the wine that defines the winery. It is serious and balanced, complex and very complete with fully developed aromas and flavors, with a long, harmonious palate featuring vibrant acidity and a strong mineral, stony component. Do Ferreiro is a very dry, varietally correct wine that is really representative of the Salnés Valley terruño. Expressive and harmonious,  combining power and freshness; Do Ferreiro Albariño is capable of developing in bottle for 10 years or more.

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.

Winemaker Description 

Pazo de La Cuesta La Pastoriza 2022 is a very limited edition wine, primarily made with 40-year-old Godello vines. The blend is enhanced with a touch of Albariño and Treixadura, adding complexity and freshness.

It matured in French oak foudres on fine lees for eight months, imparting exceptional elegance and smoothness. With a production limited to just 1,987 numbered 750 ml. bottles, Pazo de La Cuesta La Pastoriza is a unique gem that reflects the essence of its terroir and highlights the aging potential of the Godello grape. It is a tribute to Doña Pastoriza Flórez de Losada y Quiroga, who made a decisive commitment to modernizing the winemaking practices of the estate.

Clay soils with high granite content. Together, these soils provide an optimal balance of water retention, drainage, and minerality.

Winemaker Description 

This small-production Albarino comes from a mix of young and very old vines, made to be a pure, straight-to-the-point take on the bracing variety! The citrus blossom top notes, and core fruit character of apple & nectarine, come with a wash of powerful, saline-like acidity into the well-balanced finish, making for a mouthwateringly delicious experience.

Pedro’s Albariño collection is from the Salnés Valley hamlet, Meaño. If I were to draw a comparison to Pedro’s wines and our other growers in Rías Baixas, I’d say they’re more powerful than those of Manuel Moldes and, perhaps of equal power to Xesteiriña, but are more contained and classically styled than the latter. Pedro’s Albariños have broad shoulders, a compact core and megathrust. This may be partly due to the older average vine age of his many parcels, and, in some cases, deeper topsoil. Moldes’ cru Albariños are on schist, with his Afelio on the mostly granite. Xesteiriña harvests from a single plot of extremely hard metamorphic rock with almost no topsoil. The bedrock is somewhere between medium- to high-grade metamorphic rock: some looks like gneiss while others look like schist. Xesteiriña’s rock type is probably the rarest of all in Salnés with vineyards planted.

Winemaker Description 

One of the few 100% Brancellao wines from Ribeira Sacra, reminiscent of a wine from Burgundy, aged for six months in new French oak barrels, with the freshness and expressiveness of a little known variety with huge potential and great distinction.

Exceptional selection of the Brancellao grape from Pazo de La Cuesta’s historic vineyard. Manual harvesting followed by destemming and gravity-flow to the fermentation tanks. First, alcoholic fermentation takes place at a controlled temperature of 16-18oC, followed by malolactic fermentation, both in stainless steel tanks. First aged on its lees and later aged for six months in 300- and 500-litre French and Central European oak barrels.

TASTING NOTES

Clean and bright with a surprising colour. Very intense nose with complex red fruit, spices, and the characteristic coffee and cocoa notes of the terroir. This wine has a pleasant texture and is bold and complex in the mouth, well structured and intense on the palate and extremely fresh, which makes it appealing at any time of year.

Winemaker Description 

2021 | Garnacha Tintorera Prefiloxérica

Grapes from pre-phylloxera vineyards planted in 1860 on ungrafted vines. Two micro plots of 4,000 m2 and 2,000 m2, on the banks of the Sil River that thanks to the natural barriers and strength of this variety reached today’s times.

GRAPE VARIETY: 100% Garnacha Tintorera  from pre-phylloxera vineyards planted in 1860 on ungrafted vines.

CATEGORY: Matured red wine

Optimal weather conditions had a positive influence on the quality of the grapes. The cool, slightly humid spring favored vigorous bud break and uneventful fruit set. The summer was characterized by sunny days and cool nights, which allowed a gradual and balanced ripening of the grapes. The harvest, carried out in the last week of September, took place under dry and stable weather conditions, ensuring that the grapes were harvested at the peak of ripeness, with excellent concentration of flavors.

Harvest by hand with fruit selection in the vineyard. Destemming and pre-fermentation maceration for 4 days. Foot of vat with neutral yeast support. Alcoholic fermentation in stainless steel tanks below 20ºC and subsequent spontaneous malolactic fermentation. Aged for 8 months in French oak barrels: one 500-liter and two 300-liter medium toast barrels. Bottled in July 2023.

In visual phase high layer, with cherry red hues. On the nose, red fruits stand out with subtle floral notes and the complexity provided by the barrel aging. The palate is sweet, yet fresh, with good acidity. Long and persistent.

Winemaker Description 

Treixadura, Godello, Albariño, and Loureira are combined in this wine to give the best of each variety and surprise the palate with a blend of grapes from our vineyard that challenges the senses with the elegance and finesse that define the greatest white wines.

TASTING NOTES

Bright straw-coloured yellow with a medium-high intensity. Aromas of stone fruit and white flowers. Powerful, complex, and fresh on the palate, offering appealingly harmonious flavours.

FOOD PAIRING

• Hake cheeks with cardinal prawns.
• Tuna skin with tomato sauce.
• Creamy rice with mushrooms.

Expert Review - Vintage 2022

Luis Guitierez of The Wine Advocate writes 93+ Points | They haven't produced this wine since 2019, and there are substantial changes. There's no Treixadura in the 2022 Viño Branco Dos Canotos; they didn't do any skin contact; and it didn't go through malolactic, because it has a low pH (3.0) and high acidity. It matured in chestnut cask with full less until bottling in May 2023, quite early. The wine is dominated by the Albariño (around 40%, the rest, Lado, Caíño Branco and Loureira) in the aromatics, floral and herbal. It has around 11.7% alcohol, a very tasty and vibrant palate with pungent flavors, and very good persistence and length. There are only 910 bottles.

Winemaker Description 

Lovely lemon and peach aromas with hints of honeysuckle and white pepper, super fresh, light-bodied, airy, silky on the palate.

Winemaker Description 

Pale straw in colour. The bouquet shows all the hallmarks of a great Albariño. Refreshing vibrant acidity which is balanced by a smooth body and long finish. Sacabeira spends one year on lees, developing aromas of brioche and toast, with flavours of ripe apples and pears on the clean finish.

Expert Review - Vintage 2022

The Wine Advocate 94 Points | The pale and bright ruby-colored 2022 Colleita nº10 Tinto is more ethereal and elegant, with a more perfumed nose than the 2021 vintage, despite being a warmer and riper year. It's more reductive, quite complete and elegant, lighter, with a touch of volatility that lifts it up. This feels very young, and it's sharp and balanced. It's tasty, almost salty, a red for food. They produced some 8,000 bottles this year. 

Winemaker Description 

The wines etched into our memories don’t always come with obscene prices, rarity or universally acknowledged pedigrees—at least for the most adventuresome in the wine community. They are often uniquely personal and somehow evoke the memories from as far back as our childhoods. 

The As Abeleiras “Viño branco de parcela” (Albariño) is released a year after the entry-level Albariño and comes from a single parcela planted in 1993 by a very young Pedro and his father. It sits at 100 meters altitude, also on granite soil. While the 2019 version was raised in steel, this year spent time in old French oak barrels. 

While the other two Albariños have a broad band of expressions and roundness due to the diversity of the many vineyard parcels in each wine, this single vineyard’s uniqueness offers a more vertical than horizontal experience. While the other two would be great for a bigger party of people because they jump into the mosh pit and start knocking people out on the first swing, As Abeleiras is initially more snug and better suited for a two-person tango. 

While the others are wonderful in their way, this is the thinker, the wine to observe and admire for its singularity, focused austerity, and tight, chalky and grippy texture. It’s a minerally beam of light. The others are mineral bombs.

Winemaker Description 

Xabi Soeanes is in love with his Galician countryside, and he’s even more taken in by its nearly forgotten past. His greatest desire, his dream, is to share this cultural treasure with the world, through the lens of his varietally blended wines—the
historical winegrowing practice of this area.

Fazenda Prádio (named after a local tree known as a false maple, or sycamore) is located within the Chantada subzone, one of the coldest of Ribeira Sacra, heavily influenced by the Atlantic.

His 3.5ha of vines, a collection of Mencía, Caíño Longo, Merenzao, Brancellao, Godello, and other indigenous varieties, are perched on wide terraces between 180-300m that overlook the Miño River gorge and are carved out of a steep hill split with granite and schist. Xabi practiced organic and biodynamic farming for years but after a series of seasons that almost put him out of business, he keeps the door open to move freely when needed.