Algueira Finca Cortezada 2018

The current vintage of the white blend 2018 Finca Cortezada has to be one of the most serious whites I have ever encountered from Algueira. This comes from a vineyard planted some 20 years ago with 40% each Albariño and Godello and 20% Treixadura. The place is incredible, featuring stony terraces with gneiss soils rich in quartz that deliver wines with incredible energy and, like this wine, pungent minerality and inner power. This is still very young, very pale in color and a little shy and undeveloped, but it has potential to develop nicely in bottle. This fermented in stainless steel and was bottled after seven months with the lees but completely unoaked. I can say that I tasted the 2012 next to this, and the 2012 still going strong—it has a slightly different aromatic profile and is a tad riper. This 2018 should age even better. I think it's great that they are sharing the name of the place with Fedellos do Couto, who owns the neighboring vines and bottles a red Cortezada. 6,552 bottles were filled in May 2019.