The other day Angela and I opened up a bottle of a recently bottled 2011 over dinner (for quality control purposes of course)! One of the immediately apparent characteristics of this new wine was the zesty, salt-lick character, often associated with young albariño from the Salnés Valley (the northern part of our DO where we are located). Where this sensation actually originates from is open to conjecture, and could be the combination of several factors. The gentle Atlantic sea breeze, the natural salts in some of our sandy soils, or perhaps even the particular clone of albariño itself…. whichever is responsible, it’s delicious, and gives our wine one of its unique, cool climate characteristics.

It reminded me of something that I read in the press only a few weeks ago. The story of how one particular French wine had been deliberately stored on the seabed in order to see the effect this would have on its evolution. Of course this is nothing new, and has been tried before, in barrel, bottle and sometimes other specially constructed containers. On many occasions it is done knowingly, by way of experimentation, but on some occasions it has been done by accident as in the case of shipwrecks. Very recently eleven bottles of 200 year-old Champagne were sold at auction for about US$140,000 – they had spent the last couple of centuries at the bottom of the Baltic Sea until they were uncovered in 2010. The well chilled, lightless seabed had apparently preserved the contents perfectly, indeed some tasters actually claimed that the bottles had been improved.

Experiments with red Bordeaux wines stored in barrel under the sea have also noted some interesting changes – not only a loss of alcohol, but also an increased level of sodium, apparently adding a very subtle salty note, that helped to integrate the tannins.

In our albariño we enjoy this zesty, salty note for free, and it’s still perfect with seafood!

The other day Angela and I opened up a bottle of a recently bottled 2011 over dinner (for quality control purposes of course)! One of the immediately apparent characteristics of this new wine was the zesty, salt-lick character, often associated with young albariño from the Salnés Valley (the northern part of our DO where we are located). Where this sensation actually originates from is open to conjecture, and could be the combination of several factors. The gentle Atlantic sea breeze, the natural salts in some of our sandy soils, or perhaps even the particular clone of albariño itself…. whichever is responsible, it’s delicious, and gives our wine one of its unique, cool climate characteristics.

It reminded me of something that I read in the press only a few weeks ago. The story of how one particular French wine had been deliberately stored on the seabed in order to see the effect this would have on its evolution. Of course this is nothing new, and has been tried before, in barrel, bottle and sometimes other specially constructed containers. On many occasions it is done knowingly, by way of experimentation, but on some occasions it has been done by accident as in the case of shipwrecks. Very recently eleven bottles of 200 year-old Champagne were sold at auction for about US$140,000 – they had spent the last couple of centuries at the bottom of the Baltic Sea until they were uncovered in 2010. The well chilled, lightless seabed had apparently preserved the contents perfectly, indeed some tasters actually claimed that the bottles had been improved.

Experiments with red Bordeaux wines stored in barrel under the sea have also noted some interesting changes – not only a loss of alcohol, but also an increased level of sodium, apparently adding a very subtle salty note, that helped to integrate the tannins.

In our albariño we enjoy this zesty, salty note for free, and it’s still perfect with seafood!