The 97pt Albariño That Changed the Conversation

The 97pt Albariño That Changed the Conversation

There are plenty of great Albariños out there. Then there are wines like Forjas del Salnés Leirana Finca Genoveva, the kind that completely changes the conversation about what Albariño can be.

Grape: 100% Albariño
Region: Val do Salnés, Rías Baixas, Galicia, Spain
Alcohol: 12.9%
Drinking Window: Now-2040
Pairing: Shellfish, simply prepared fish, seafood risotto or rice dishes, white meats
Reviews: 97 pts James Suckling | 96+ pts Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate | 95 pts Vinous

As Jessica (Jess) Ortiz, our in-house Spanish Wine Expert, puts it:

“Many wines speak of terroir, but every once in a while, you come across one that really makes you understand what that means. For me, Forjas del Salnés Leirana is one of those wines.

This Albariño has a purity that keeps you coming back for another sip, its bright acidity, saline character and beautiful texture all working together. What I especially love is how it evolves. With time it gains even more nuance, texture and roundness. It’s wonderful now, but it’s also the kind of bottle I’d love to rediscover a few years down the road.”

Finca Genoveva is not ordinary Albariño.

The fruit comes from an extraordinary parcel in Meaño planted with roughly 200-year-old Albariño vines, rooted in the decomposed granite soils that define this corner of coastal Galicia.

Rodrigo Méndez of Forjas del Salnés treats the wine with remarkable restraint, allowing the vineyard to do the talking. The 2022 spent roughly 12 months in large foudres without malolactic fermentation, preserving that electric freshness and Atlantic salinity while giving the wine serious depth and texture.

Production is tiny, only around 5,000 bottles, and the critics have taken notice.

97 points, James Suckling
96+ points, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
95 points, Vinous

This is Albariño with the concentration, structure and longevity of a serious white wine, yet it never loses the freshness, citrus, stone fruit and unmistakable salty mineral character that makes Rías Baixas so compelling.

We have just 35 bottles of the 2022 Finca Genoveva available.

For anyone who thinks they already know Albariño, this is the bottle we’d put in front of them, proudly.