After Christmas feasts, January calls for fresh, cheerful wines. Few whites can cleanse the palate better than Albariño. Although consumers may be wary of this category after the price rises of recent years, there are still producers to be discovered in Rías Baixas who offer very good value for money.
Castro Martín is a family-run winery in Ribadumia, in the Salnés Valley, that produces around 300,000 bottles a year, of which 60-70% is sold abroad. The entry-level Casal Caeiro brand uses grapes from local suppliers, but the flagship white Castro Martín is made entirely from its own vineyards. This Albariño is aged in stainless steel tanks for 12 months - between 80,000 and 90,000 bottles are produced.
It is made from a selection of its own 11 hectares facing the sea. The bunches are pressed directly without being crushed or destemmed.
As well as stating that the wine has been aged 'on lees', they also include the words 'en rama' on the label, which is typical of unfiltered or lightly filtered Sherry wines.
The wine is fresh and crisp, with a lively acidity that is typical of Albariño. As is the case with quality Albariño, it benefits from extended bottle ageing. At the Colección Rías Baixas tasting in Madrid last November, the winery presented a 2020 with a remarkable evolution (toasted notes from the lees, citrus character, crisp like the 2022 but with more definition and length).
Castro Martín embodies the wine-growing tradition of several generations of the Martín-Serantes family. Originally from the Canary Islands, but married to a Serantes woman, Domingo Martín built a winery in 1981 that claims to be the first in the region to be fully equipped with stainless steel tanks. His daughter Ángela (pictured below) is now in charge of winemaking and viticulture. Her Latin accent may be surprising (she was born in Venezuela and the years she spent there have left their mark), but she has been at the helm since 1993. The fact that she married her English importer, Andrew MacCarthy, in the early 2000s and that he settled in Galicia explains the brand's performance on international markets.
The wine is available in the UK through Bibendum Wine and Berkmann Wine Cellars. In Spain, we found it for €13.95 at Vinicava and on the winery's website, with a minimum purchase of six bottles (€72). Other options are also available through Wine Searcher.
Score 2022 vintage: 91
Score 2020 vinatge: 93
Author
Amaya Cervera
A wine journalist with almost 30 years' experience, she is the founder of the award-winning Spanish Wine Lover website. In 2023, she won the National Gastronomy Award for Gastronomic Communication
