The 2018 Albariño Cepas Vellas has to be one of the finest vintages of this old-vine (reaaaaally old vine!) cuvée, in a vintage where the wine reached levels of elegance and harmony that I don't remember before. After having the wine in the glass for almost two hours, the nose was explosive, and the palate felt like bottled electricity, with effervescent acidity that makes you salivate, and it had incredible depth and concentration. They now tell me they think the vines could have been planted in 1785, in a property that had been a granite quarry, so I don't need to tell you what the soils are like here. This is a zone with a lot of fog, and that brings intense salinity to the wines. I need to dig out some bottles of 2010 I have somewhere in my cellar and check the evolution, because they tell me, and I agree, that this is a modern version of the 2010. There are 8,000 bottles of this wine. It was bottled in September 2019.

Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 96 RP

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Glistening chartreuse. Incisive, mineral-tinged aromas of tangerine, pear, white peach and jasmine show excellent delineation and spicy lift. Lively and sharply detailed on the palate, offering intense citrus and orchard fruit, bitter quinine and honeysuckle flavors underscored by a vein of chalky minerality. Finishes dry, lively and extremely long, with vibrant orange pith and floral qualities and an insistent mineral note.

Vinous Media | 94 VM

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A benchmark for the purity of Albariño fruit in Salnés, from vineyards between 50 and 200 years old. It’s fresh and lively, with flavours of apricot, peach, dried grass, spice and acacia, with roundness from 12 months’ lees ageing and a multi-layered finish. Drinking Window 2020 - 2025.

Decanter | 93 DEC

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Gerardo Mendez grows this fruit at a parcel of ancient pergola-trained vines directly in front of his winery in Meaño. He believes them to be more than 245 years old. They produce a concentrated albariño, taken through a five-hour cold soak, a fermentation started by a pied de cuve from the grapes, then 11 months on the lees in stainless-steel tanks. The broad, bitter leesiness is what comes first, the wine’s youthful power showing in the intense, oceanic flavors of a barnacle, the depth and richness structured by racy acidity. Put the bottle aside for a day, and then another, and the wine keeps getting better, its freshness expanding in waves of pale, savory fruit.

Wine & Spirits | 92 W&S

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