Lenda Albariño comes from Sustainable and practising organic vineyards with grape selection done through manual harvesting, with further quality control upon arrival in the winery.  It comes from the youngest plots in the Pazo Pondal vineyards, and is a prime example of a wine showing off its Galician DNA.

Lenda is Pazo Pondal's youngest Albariño and is a wonderful bottle to share with friends and good food.  It highlights its youthfulness with citrus fruit and the cooler climate touch of acidity that makes it a unique product from a unique region.  The nose features aromas of stone and tropical fruits, combined with pleasant and very fresh citrus notes.  On the palate the wine is very approachable and fresh, with the food friendly acidity well compensated by the roundness that gives it an exceedingly pleasing aftertaste.

Lenda Albariño is a perfect pairing with sushi, a wide range of seafood dishes and white meats.  It is also a beautiful aperitif.

Lenda Albariño is currently available in The Wine Press, Dundee's Finest Wine Bar.

Vineyard and Winery

The grapes selected for Lenda come from the parcels of the Barrocas, Torre and O Alto vineyards.  These are vineyards of higher altitude, with lower humidity, more ventilated and with a greater temperature difference between day and night. As a result, the grapes mature more slowly and the result is wines with more aromatic intensity, a higher level of acidity with a lightness and freshness on the palate.

The plots are planted in a spade system oriented to the northeast and southeast.  Their location allows them to be always ventilated and bathed in the sun's rays, guaranteeing the quality and optimal maturity of their bunches. These plots for this wine are usually harvested in late September.  The soils of these plots have a PH between 6.5 and 6.2.  They are granitic and shallow with a high content of organic matter, which compensates for the shallow depth of the land (30-40 cm) and improve the retention of water and nutrients.

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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.