Description
This is a one-man-band micro producer from Arnoia, the same town where Luis Anxo Rodriguez farms. His vineyard work is immaculate, someone whom many of the Spanish natural winemakers revere big time. His whites are a blend of old vine Lado and Treixadura, with the reds being an indigegous kitchen sink blend of Caiño family varieties.
“The old white blend Issué was renamed after 2015, so I tasted the 2016 Cháns e Lus Castes Brancas (“cháns e lus” means “soils and light” in the Gallego language, and “castes brancas” means “white grapes”), which is mostly Lado and Treixadura, but it has a number of other different varieties like Loureira, Albilla, Albillo or Godello, from younger and older vines on granite and clay soils in the Arnoia Valley. It fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured in 500-liter oak casks for nine months. The wine is kept in bottle until it’s sold and released when ready. The wine has a golden color and a complex and fully developed nose with textbook aromas of moss, river stones, pollen, chamomile and yellow flowers, intense, complex and layered, clean and very expressive. It reveals a compact palate, relaxed and harmonious, with a juicy texture and the granularity and mouthfeel of the granite. It’s long and clean and has all the ingredients for a positive development in bottle. Among the very best wines I tasted from Ribeiro. 2,800 bottles produced. It was bottled in April 2018.” 95 Luis Gutierrez
