Description
If Sally sells seashells by the sea shore, Xurxo Alba of Albamar makes albariño al alba del mar (next to the sea). If it were up to me, I’d stop right here. There’s really not much more to say. It’s what he was born to do. It’s what he knows best.
Xurxo knocks it out of the park constantly with this 100% Albariño pieced together from multiple parcels (around 10 hectares) of vines organically grown over granite and schist soils. All the harvesting is done by hand with direct press of whole clusters, and 2 fermentations (both spontaneous with indigenous yeasts) partially in stainless steel and neutral oak, but with no malolactic. This helps to preserve the freshness and acidity of the finished wine, imparting no flavors of oak but rather allowing the wine to breathe. Aging is 6 months in stainless steel sur lie and bottled unfined, slight filtration and low SO2 at bottling.
