Ventoleiro Tinto - Caíño Longo, G. Tintorera, Albariño (22)

Caíño Longo (70%), Garnacha Tintorera (10%) & Albariño (20%) | Val do Avia, Ribeiro | terroir van graniet | 170-230 meter hoogte | stokken tussen 30-50 jaar oud | druivenrassen zijn apart vergist | whole bunch | vergisting in staaltank | rijping in 1000L Stockinger foudres | 1300 flessen | licht rode kleur | floraal | kruidig | iets specerij | stenig | zijde | delicaat | levendig fruit | zacht | fijne zuren | wat peper | verfijnd en lang

Adega a Barouta

Adega a Barouta is een samenwerking tussen Javier Alén (Viña Mein), Dani Landi en Fernando García (Comando G) en hun wijngaardmanager en keldermeester Roberto Núñez. Dani en Fernando zijn befaamde wijnmakers. De mannen maken van Grenache de meest indrukwekkende wijnen in Gredos. Er blijft goed contact met elkaar en een sterk gevoel voor de Ribeiro, en later kopen ze enkele wijngaarden in Leiro en Cabanelas om Adega a Barouta te starten. Met zo’n 2,5 ha aan wijngaard is de productie klein en specifiek. 

Review

There is a new red in 2022, the 2022 Ventoleiro, which, in this first vintage, is sold without appellation of origin because they used a percentage of white grapes. The idea is to produce a light and approachable red from the Avia Valley, from different vineyards. In this first vintage, the blend is 70% Caíño Longo, 10% Garnacha Tintorera and 20% Albariño. The grapes fermented separately with full clusters and indigenous yeasts, and the wine matured in a 1,000-liter oak foudre for seven months. They see the wines of Ribeiro as wines that need long élevage, but they also want to provide a younger wine with shorter aging. It's pale and has moderate ripeness and low 11% alcohol with bright red fruit and some faint creaminess from the oak (the Stockinger foudre was new in 2020). It comes from a warm and dry year with healthy fruit and good yields and an early harvest. It has the spiciness from the Caíño, a grape that keeps the alcohol quite low and provides good acidity and gives the narrow, vegetal and sharp edge to the wines with notes of violets, balsam and white pepper. This is the wine that reminded me more of the Comando G style (Landi told me the 10% Garnacha Tintorera marks the wine and could be responsible for that, even if it's Tintorera...), floral, herbal, stony, with a light to medium-bodied palate with finesse, length and freshness. 1,300 bottles were filled in June 2023. 94/100 Luis Gutiérrez

A Barouta is a new small project in Ribeiro (everything in Ribeiro is small). It's a joint venture between Javier Alén, who is the ex-owner of Viña Mein and the promoter of the project, and Dani Landi and Fernando García from Comando G from Gredos and their Chilean vineyard manager and cellarmaster, Roberto Núñez. It was born from their friendship and the experience of working together in Ribeiro over the last eight years as they helped Alén to transform the vineyards and wines of Meín, which was later sold to the Pago de Carraovejas group from Ribera del Duero. They wanted to keep their links with the place and continue with their friendship by working together in something small. 

They purchased some old vineyards in the villages of Leiro and Cabanelas. The one in Leiro, O Penedo, is very close to Emilio Rojo and has a big granite boulder in the middle that somehow reminded me of the landscape of the vineyard in Gredos. They also bought an old stone building next to Alén's family house in Barouta, hence the name, and turned it into a very simple and functional winery. There is one white and one red, and the first vintage is 2020. They did the same in 2021; but in 2022, they introduced a new village red, and they are searching for the specific place that could produce a single-vineyard wine. Production will remain small; they only have around 2.5 hectares of vineyards. They started with some 2,000 bottles with the idea to produce between 7,000 and 10,000 bottles per year. Prices are still not 100%. This is a new name to follow in Ribeiro.