Leirana Genoveva 2023

A stony nose with citrus elements and an iodine, sealike note. Mineral and textural at first, this dissolves rapidly across the palate, revealing contained ripeness and subtle evolution. Incisive and finely structured, it carries the fruit with balance and composure. Penetrating and precise, a wine of captivating austerity that will evolve in the bottle. From a single 200-year-old vineyard planted on decomposed granite. Aged 12 months in large foudres. No malolactic fermentation. Better in 2026.

The 2023 Leirana Finca Genoveva deserves the best treatment: a wide Burgundy glass and plenty of time and patience. This is a very serious white that transcends variety and vintage, from a very special place, a centenary vineyard that transmits the strict and serious character of the granite soils like few others. The wine fermented and matured in well-seasoned, neutral 2,500-liter oak foudres with the lees untouched for one year. This is always closed, ungiving and austere at first and when young, but it's also precise, symmetric and full of energy rather than weight. It has very balanced parameters: 12.55% alcohol, a pH of 3.29 and 7.14 grams of acidity. 5,000 bottles were filled in September 2024. (Luis Gutiérrez)

Leirana Genovena is made with what Rodri Méndez calls the "primitive clone of Albariño", which has much smaller bunches than many of the more recent selections. Sourced from a 2.5-hectare vineyard in Valiñas, a part of which is over 200 years' old, this is a subtly wooded, wonderfully focused expression of granitic soils, with incredible energy, mouthwatering freshness and a palate of lemongrass, beeswax and wet stones. 2026-35