Lagar de Pintos Rías Baixas Albariño boasts a zesty, citrusy aroma coupled with a robust and grapefruit-noted flavour profile.  A saline hint on the finish contributes to its dynamic complexity.  This dry white wine is perfect for pairing with seafood dishes or enjoying on its own.  It's sure to be a favourite choice for any wine enthusiast.

Vineyard and Winery

This wine is a finely balanced blend of the estate's 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 up to 20 days difference in harvest dates between plots. The vines are on average 40 years old.

Each plot was vinified separately. The grapes were gently whole bunch pressed and fermented using indigenous yeasts in stainless steel tanks and old oak foudres, enhancing the wine’s texture and aromatic complexity. The wines were aged on lees for seven to eight months. 20% of the blend underwent malolactic fermentation to balance the fresh, lively fruit profile and crisp acidity that characterise this wine.

About the Producer

Lagar de Pintos is a small family estate located in the Salnés Valley, the most northerly subzone of the Rías Baixas appellation. Today, the family’s 5.5 hectares of organically farmed Albariño is managed by sisters, Marta and Carmen Castro-Pintos, with the assistance of respected consultant viticulturalist Dominique Roujou de Boubée. 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. It has been in the Pintos family for four generations. Originally used as a farmstead where they kept sheep and cows, 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.

About the Region

Rías Baixas is the leading Denominación de Origen (DO) sub-region in Galicia, North West Spain.  This beautiful corner of the Iberian Peninsula produces some of Spain's most highly sought after and utterly charming dry white wines.  In the past 40 years Rías Baixas has expanded massively in vineyard area and production, for example there were 14 Wineries in the late eighties and today there are over 170.

The region was producing wines of a high enough standard that it was exported to Northern Europe in the 16th and 17th Centuries but in the late 1800s and early 1900s was exposed to the Phylloxera louse.  Phylloxera feeds on and terminally damages vine roots and caused devastation in Europe's Vineyards between the 1880s and early 1900s.  At this time many of the traditional vine varieties were abandoned, and by the 1900s the region's vineyards were largely planted with high-yielding varieties producing poor quality wines.  A revival gained pace as the 1980s came into view and growers were encouraged to replant native vine varieties.  Producers were also given incentives to invest in modern winemaking equipment.

Rías Baixas has five sub-regions and all five have the same granite-based subsoils and moderately cool and damp climate with the clear maritime influence.  The humidity in the region has an influence on the styles of vineyards and the wine produced.  Often the vines are trained on pergolas (see photo below) to take advantage of the sea breezes to keep them fresh so as to avoid disease and bunch rot.  Many of the purest Albariño wines in the world come these five zones.  The refreshing unoaked styles offering stone fruit flavours and often a hint of salinity which makes them perfect seafood wines.  There are some made in a richer style with Bâtonnage (lees stirring) and use of oak offering greater texture alongside the refreshing high natural acidity.

Albariño accounts for 90% of the total vine coverage but there are 12 different varieties  officially permitted in Rías Baixas.  Some of the white grapes may be blended with Albariño including Loureira or Marqués as it is known locally.  These two are also commonly both blended in the Vinho Verde region just across the border in Portugal.