Rodrigo Mendez 'Cies' Albarino 2023

n 2012 Rodrigo Mendez decided to set up a new and personal project under his own name. His goal was to produce wines that authentically reflect the terroir of Galicia's Rías Baixas region, adhering to biodynamic farming principles. Rooted in his family’s legacy and inspired by his grandfather’s teachings, Rodri emphasizes simplicity and terroir. He uses ancient winemaking techniques to create age-worthy wines that capture the history and soils of the region. The winery, located in Meaño, Pontevedra, operates on a small scale and produces very limited quantities each year. Traditional methods are employed, combining stainless steel tanks with oak barrels to craft wines that showcase the unique character of the land. Cíes Albariño, named after the Cíes Islands off the coast of Pontevedra, is a small-production wine that embodies a traditional approach to Albariño from the Val do Salnés subzone. Fermented with indigenous yeast, Cíes is partially aged in old wooden vessels without temperature control, a method once common for Albariño before the widespread use of stainless steel in the 1980s. Though this technique is rare in the region today, Rodrigo Méndez has revived it to craft unique, age-worthy Albariños like Cíes.
 
WHAT MAKES THIS WINE UNIQUE?
Old vines dating back to 1954. 100% indigenous yeast fermentation. Half of the wine is fermented and aged without controlling the temperature in old wood vessels. The other half is fermented in stainless steel tank. This is a village wine from Meano, an area of 7 villages less than 1 km apart, within the Salnes subzone.
 
"The 2023 Cíes is the white village wine from Meaño, from different vineyards, and it is elegant and subtle, insinuating and detailed. It fermented and matured in barrels of different sizes where it matured for six months. It has moderate ripeness and 12.2% alcohol with very good freshness (pH 3.46) and acidity (7.45 grams), which makes it vibrant and pungent, with saline flavors and a super tasty finish. It is sharp, precise and mineral. 12,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in March 2024. Drink: 2024-2031. (7/11/24)"
- 95 points Luis Gutiérrez (Wine Advocate)