Pazo de Barrantes Albarino la Comtesse 2020 750ml

The 2020 La Comtesse was produced with the Albariño grapes from a 1.4-hectare plot called Cacheiro, where they have their oldest vines (from 1965) that deliver lower yields. This has a slightly darker color, denoting its age. The juice from the pressing of the destemmed grapes fermented for 60 days in 3,000-liter oak vats, where the wine matured for 12 months, the first three with the lees, and then it was kept in concrete for a further 18 months, which is more time in concrete than in previous years. The wine is complex and subtle, very elegant, with notes of aged Albariño, mixing citrus fruit with notes of bay leaf and hay but no trace of oak. It’s powerful, long and balanced, with the classical salty twist in the finish. It’s silky, elegant and serious, still undeveloped but with more complexity and depth than its younger sibling from 2022 that I tasted next to it. It comes in at 13.5% alcohol, with a pH of 3.08 and 7.7 grams of acidity. 9,972 bottles and 723 magnums produced. It was bottled in June 2023. It will not be released until the end of 2025 or early 2026.