Any expert’s list of the greatest, most age-worthy white wines of the world is likely to be heavily French, with some German and Austrian thrown in. Today’s wine has me thinking that Albariño from the Rías Baixas will soon be part of that conversation—if it isn’t already.
The tiny Alberto Nanclares estate, in the Val do Salnés sub-region of the Rías Baixas, is an organically farmed haven in the lush, unspoiled place that is Galicia. This is one of the producers that is going to propel this terroir—and the Albariño grape—to the next level, with wines that go beyond pleasant, salty, and easy-drinking into new, more profound territory. Today’s vibrant, un-oaked 2018 leaves the kind of imprint I expect from top-tier Chablis and especially the best Muscadets from the Loire’s Sèvre et Maine region. In fact, the latter is perhaps the perfect analog for Nanclares’ “Tempus Vivendi”: This is a deliciously kindred spirit to Muscadet wines from legendary cru vineyards such as “Clisson” and “Château Thébaud,” with a strikingly similar mix of leesy complexity, etched-from-stone-minerality, vibrant energy, and a telltale kiss of seaborne salinity. Like the whites of its Val do Salnés neighbor, Do Ferreiro, Tempus Vivendi truly elevates the game in Rías Baixas—a legitimately great terroir deserving of its due!
About 20 years ago, Alberto Nanclares and his wife moved from their native Basque country to the Galician seaside hamlet of Castrelo, not far from the heart of the Val do Salnés, Cambados. The home they purchased included some vineyard land, which Alberto, an economist by training, didn’t bother with at first. Over time, wine and farming grew on him, as did the notion of farming organically, without chemicals—not an easy thing to do in this cold, wet growing zone, where many of the vineyards are perched on bluffs right above the Atlantic. Over time, Alberto took over full-time winemaking responsibilities at the estate, vinifying his wines by parcel and generally avoiding the use of oak barrels for aging. His naturally farmed, naturally made wines radiate purity and pulse with energy while displaying the profound saltiness that comes from fruit grown close to the coast. They have edge, and grip. By contrast, many Albariños you encounter in the supermarket are crafted using selected yeasts and are pushed towards greater ripeness and sweetness, to suit the “international” palate.
Having grown his vineyard holdings to about five hectares in and around Cambados, Alberto has taken on Silvia Prieto as a partner to help with day-to-day operations at the growing property. They craft a rather wide range of wines given the relatively small size of the estate, with an emphasis on single-vineyard (or village-specific) bottlings. Tempus Vivendi is sourced from six individual parcels in three coastal villages about 10 miles south of Cambados. Hand-harvested fruit for the wine was whole-cluster pressed into stainless steel vats and fermented with ambient yeasts only; malolactic fermentation (a secondary fermentation that converts malic acid to lactic acid) was intentionally blocked to preserve the edgy, mouthwatering freshness of the wine; it was bottled after about six months’ aging on the lees (spent yeast cells from fermentation).
This exuberantly fresh 2018 is a glistening straw-gold in the glass moving to greenish highlights at the rim, with bright aromas of salted lemon, white peach, green mango, fresh green herbs, crushed rocks, sea salt, fresh cream, and chamomile tea. Medium-bodied and racy, with an oyster shell note that calls great Chablis to mind, it also displays a slightly tannic note, like well-steeped green tea, that is classic to the Albariño grape. It is powerful and focused and clearly has a good 5-7 years of aging ahead of it if kept well; if you are enjoying a bottle now, decant it about 30 minutes before serving in all-purpose white wine stems at 45-50 degrees. The pairing possibilities are practically limitless, with seafood obviously my first choice. Check out the attached recipe for grilled spot prawns with herbs and citrus. With this wine, that promises to be an epic meal. Enjoy!
