Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I am truly blown away by the Goliardo Caiño, which is very pale and extremely fragrant, with tons of dried rose aromas, more elegant and less peppery than any other vintage before. If I find some of the 2016 whites a tad heavy, the vintage seems to have worked wonders for reds, producing wines with more finesse and a Pinot Noir-like texture. It reminds me of the 2015 Caiño from Finca Genoveva. Some 1,500 bottles produced. This has to be the finest vintage for this bottling.
From 150-200 year old vines.
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.
