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Vionta Albarino 2009
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SILVER: 2011 Monterey Wine Competition
Mild lemon gold, with a pale rim. Hints of melon, grapefruit and apricot and a touch of floral notes on the nose. Crisp and refreshing, with a nice balance of acidity and minerality on the palate with a long, creamy lemony finish.
D.O. Rias Baixas covers around 3.700 hectares, of which 3.400 are in production. In this harvest over 23.620.000 kilos of grapes were picked. Within the different varieties permitted in the D.O. a little more than 22.480.000 were Albariño, accounting for 92.5% of all the grapes harvested. In the Valle del Salnés sub-zone, where our winery is located, more than 14.700.000 kilos of Albariño were picked. The average yield this year was 6.388 kg/ha, and 6.556 growers were registered as supplying grapes to wineries.
The harvest:
2009 was a year in which the weather patterns in Galicia were different to the rest of Spain’s wine producing regions. While the rest of Spain was dry and hot, D.O Rias Baixas was much wetter, with an even higher rainfall than in previous years. The heavy rainfall in winter and spring meant that by summer the vineyards had good reserves of water at their disposal. High humidity and gentle, constant, drizzle during May caused an abnormal fruit set (Millerandage), during the flowering process. This was made up for by a larger number of bunches per vine than usual. From half way through August, and during September temperatures rose considerably, and the winds increased in strength, creating dry, warm conditions. These factors protected the vines from the onset of mildew, and we were able to plan the harvest to coincide with optimal grape maturity. Finally, light rain in the last week of September washed the berries clean, and plumped them up a little. The result of all these influences was a good crop, with the potential alcohol a littlehigher than in previous years, and a slight drop in acidity. Overall it was a very typical harvest for the Salnés region, as previous years had been, unusually, very dry and hot.
In general, despite the high rainfall the grapes showed no sign of disease (oidium or mildew). We rigorously monitored the vineyards of all our suppliers in the weeks leading up to, and during the harvest, and all our grapes were brought to th winery in peak condition. We started to pick on 27th. September, and the harvest lasted 14 days. All picking was done by hand, and the crop was brought to the winery in 20kg capacity boxes, to preserve the integrity and the quality of the grapes.
Winemaking:
We harvested only Albariño grapes. Fermentation was done at controlled temperatures to retain all the grapes’ floral and tropical aromas. The combination of yeast strains selected by our oenologists brought out to perfection the great aroma-flavour complexity of these most delicate wines. A small part of the harvest (20%) was allowed to macerate on its lees, to give the finished wine an improved structure. Due to the good natural acidity of the grapes we decided not to carry out a malolactic fermentation. The result is a rounded, balanced wine with a characteristic Albariño acidity.
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| Don't Pay: $25
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WBW Rating: 92/100
Closure: Stelvin
Region: Spain |
Winemaker: Adolfo Heredia
Drink now until: 2014
Alc/Vol: 12.5 %
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