92 points - Decanter
Delicately poised, with amazing freshness, from 100% unoaked Espadeiro. Ethereal – one of the rare red wines that can enhance the flavour of well-prepared vegetable dishes. Delicately balanced, it is fresh, with a joyous, firm lightness, and it saves the best for the finish! A wine of original character, produced in an area that has no need to rely on any tradition, it shows great style. I could drink this forever.
Drinking Window 2020 - 2025
Rodrigo Méndez is preserving elements of Galician wine heritage. Although today Rias Biaxas is synonymous with Albariño at one time indigenous red varietals were common, these were mostly ripped out in the 70s. The Méndez family thankfully protected their pockets of old, some seriously old, vines - the age of their Caiño, Espadeiro, and Loureiro vines are between 150-200 years old protected from phylloxera by sandy granitic soils.
Forjas del Salnes whites are produced from Albariño, left to mature fully tempering the puckering malic acids often found in this variety. Windswept by the Atlantic Ocean they are saline, precise with amazing intensity. The reds are bright, spicy and juicy - 'tintos del mar' (reds of the ocean) and deliciously Galicia.
