2023 Nanclares y Prieto, Albariño “Pergola Dandelion” Ollando a Terra, Salnés, Rias Baixas DO, Galicia, Spain.
Always a favorite of mine, the entry level, all stainless steel fermented and aged, Dandelion cuvée Albariño from Nanclares y Prieto is one of the great values in old world white wines, and is a pure and terroir driven offering capturing the essences of place in a fresh and stylish way. This 2023 is brightly fresh, showing off classic sea shore and salty goodness, with lime blossoms, crisp green apple, bitter peach, lemon/lime citrus, as well as a touch of fleshy melon, along with flinty mineral, iodine, almond and wet stone. This wine is typically sourced from 15 distinct parcels within 6 vineyards in the Salnés region around the village of Cambados, where Nanclares y Prieto is based, with old school traditional pergola trained vines that are influenced by the cool Atlantic Ocean and the decomposed granite sandy soils, which all highlights the mineral and saline character in the wine. Coming from various exposures, unique plots and vines ranging from 20 to 45 years old, this Pergola Dandelion sees the unique high training system that allows for air to circulate, reducing mildew pressure here near the cool Atlantic Ocean. The Nanclares y Prieto Pergola Dandelion makes for a great Summer sipper and is more impressive with the native cuisine, going great to wash down steamed claims or mussels in white wine and scallion broth, fresh oysters, as I had it with recently, and or rosemary accented grilled sardines.
The Viticultores Nanclares y Prieto, led by Alberto Nanclares, as mentioned in my prior reviews, who started this small winery, was convinced of and passion about holistic and organic farming, which with the closeness to the Ocean and the humid conditions make very difficult, but has been proven it can be done and that the wine is much better for it, even incorporating biodynamic methods in recent years, along with innovative natural seaweed composting. The winemaking, with the addition of the youthful talents of Silvia Prieto, has taken on a highly detailed though low intervention style to promote transparency and a sense of place. For the Pergola Dandelion things are kept simple and precise with a slow whole cluster pressing of the grapes in a soft pneumatic press and fermented using native yeast in stainless tanks with temperature control with extremely low SO2 employed. The steely dry Albariño here, interestingly saw one month of batonage, the stirring of the lees, before resting on the lees for another 7 months before being bottled without cold stabilization and unfined and unfiltered, which allows for every nuance of the vintage to shine through, as seen here. As noted before, I have been seriously following Alberto Nanclares and his wines since they were first imported to the States and with Silvia Prieto, who joined him in 2014 as a dynamic new generation winemaker, these are some of my favorite Spanish wines, and I highly recommend looking for them, especially the Albariño.
($28 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive