Manuel Moldes 2023 'Afelio' Albariño, Rias Baixas, Spain

Manuel Moldes' 'Afelio' Albariño is the embodiment of a classically styled Salnés Albariño: elegant tension, aromatic lift and the Atlantic influence with its salt, rain, ocean life, rock grinding waves, and cool brisk air. A set of tiny parcels scattered throughout the heart of the Val do Salnés, vines grown on granite soils and trained on overhead pergolas. Behind the veil of electricity the wine is simply crafted and the hand of the winemaker deft, but the interpretation is unique and subtly expressive.

The fermentation is made in small stainless steel tanks and old French oak barrels. After fermentation it’s aged for eight months and then bottled.

Manuel Moldes is one of the rising stars in Rias Baixas, although already a preeminent producder if you ask other winemakers and sommeliers in the region.  His Albariños highlight local schist and granite sites close to the Atlantic in the Rías Baixas subzone, Val do Salnés, to illuminate the differences between these rock types in the final products.

Manuel’s approach to his Albariño range is to have wines with notable differentiating characteristics—in this case mostly influenced by the bedrock and topsoil and less in the cellar. They either contrast the soil type altogether, whether it be completely on schist, or  on granite parcels. There are also the particularities within a rock and soil type to illuminate their differences and are compelling enough to be bottled alone, like As Dunas, from sandy schist soil with no bedrock.

Manuel’s vineyards are on granite and schist bedrock, with topsoils of the decomposed bedrock with varying grain sizes, from talc-like fine sands to loamy mixtures of clay and sand. The granite bedrock is old and extremely friable and, like the schist bedrock sites, is crushable in one’s hand—at least from what’s found on the surface.