Lagar de Pintos 3000 Cepas Rias Baixas Albarino 2023
Lagar de Pintos 3000 Cepas Rias Baixas Albarino
Region: Rías Baixas, Galicia, Spain
Vintage: 2023
Bottle size: 75cl
Grape: Albarino
ABV: 12.5%
Notes: Vegetarian, vegan, practising organic
The nose is full of aromas of ripe fruit, aniseed and blossom, complemented by toasted oak notes. On the palate, this wine shows both the complexity and freshness of Albariño. There is a touch of minerality and a saline finish, further enhancing the complexity of this wine.
The vines are on average over 70 years old, planted across seven plots, Palomar, Gatiñeira, Requeixo, Cachadiña, La Escusa, Albar and Puente Arnela, each of which contains varying degrees of granite and sandy soils. Vines planted on soils with a higher proportion of granite tend to ripen earlier than those with more sand, allowing for a 20-day difference in harvest dates between plots. The wine is a finely balanced blend of fruit from each of these plots which were hand-picked into 20 kilogram crates to be transferred to the winery.
Each of the parcels were fermented separately using indigenous yeasts and aged on its lees in stainless-steel tanks for seven to eight months. Marta avoids malolactic fermentation which helps to retain the fresh, lively fruit that characterises this wine. The wine was then gently racked to 500 litre French oak barrels for 12 months before bottling.
Lagar de Pintos is a small family estate located in the Salnés Valley, the most northerly subzone of the Rías Baixas appellation. It is run by two sisters, Marta and Carmen Castro-Pintos. Their traditional Galician ‘pazo’, or manor house, is a typical feature of the lush green countryside found here, just a few miles from the unspoilt beaches of the Atlantic coast. Originally used as a farmstead where sheep and cows were kept, it has been in the Pintos family for four generations and it wasn’t until the 1950s that their grandfather planted vines. Their father, Pepe Pintos, modernised the estate in the 1980s when the region started to embrace wine production following the revival of the Albariño grape variety.