Benchmark Albarino by DO Ferreiro

Benchmark Albarino by DO Ferreiro

There are plenty of Albariños that are easy to like. Then there is Do Ferreiro, a wine that has become a benchmark for what the category can be.

The 2024 vintage delivers exactly what makes this wine so lovely: bright, refreshing, energetic, and downright joyful. It has that unmistakable “summer in a glass” quality. It’s crisp enough to keep you coming back for another sip, but with enough substance to make it far more interesting than a simple, light white.

Part of that depth comes from the way Do Ferreiro farms and makes the wine. The estate's 150+ very old vine plots are scattered throughout the area, making them difficult and labor-intensive to farm. That old-vine material brings an extra dimension to the finished wine, while extended time on the fine lees builds texture and body that many Albariños simply don't possess.

And then there is the patience. Do Ferreiro holds the wine back for nearly another year beyond what is typical for Albariño, allowing the wine to develop while retaining its freshness and energy. The result is a wine that is immediately delicious but has considerably more complexity and staying power than its sunny, carefree personality might suggest.

The scores for Do Ferreiro are consistently impressive, and 2024 is no exception. But numbers only tell part of the story. This is the kind of wine that makes people happy: vibrant, delicious, refreshing, versatile, and genuinely fun to drink.

94 Points, Wine Advocate
When I tasted this wine in mid-June, the nose of the 2024 Albariño was still too closed and a little reductive to show its true colors, but it was in the palate where I could see the harmony and balance of the year, a year with purity and elegance, with a perfect balance between alcohol and ripeness and freshness and acidity, with textbook parameters for good development of aromatics and flavors while keeping the spark from the granite soils. It's very Salnés. Some 90,000 bottles will be produced, but some wine is still to be bottled and kept with the fine lees in stainless steel. (LG)

94 Points, Tim Atkin
The Mendéz family's textbook Albariño uses grapes from a mind-boggling 164 small parcels in the Val do Salnés villages of Cambados, Castrelo, Meaño, Ribadumia and Sanxenxo. The kind of wine that makes you long for a plate of fresh seafood, it's racy, pure and superbly balanced, all citrus, lime and wet stones and impressive palate length.

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