2014 Selección de Añada, Pazo de Señoráns, Rías Baixas

Full bottle 1,358 g. Tasted blind and tasted again (not blind) several times over several days. It was aged for 36 months on lees in stainless steel. Then, it was racked and aged in stainless steel until April 2023, when it was bottled.

When cold and in the first couple of days, the wine was smoky and so white-knuckle tense that it felt like a blow to the jaw. Bone on bone. Bitter. But day by day, it began to open; it was an extraordinary journey—day one: struck flint, lime pickle, a sulky sourpuss. By the time it had been open for a week, it was so heady, so floral, so aromatically luscious that if you'd handed me a glass without a word, I would have been confounded: Gewurz? Muscat? Viognier? Torrontés?

Too tense and sinew-stripped mineral for Gewurz. It's too terse and salty for Muscat. Too slim-waisted for Viognier. Too much steel-cut stone fruit for Torrontés. But rose petals. But clementine peel. But jasmine and black pepper. Candied lemon peel. Day 10: flowers and melted butter; golden gooseberries and mirabelle plums; grapefruit and bergamot. Diaphanous, perplexing. It is a moody, recalcitrant, capricious and utterly wonderful wine that proved to me that Albariño really can age.

Drink 2023 - 2035

Tamlyn Currin, JancisRobinson.com (August 2024)