Santiago Ruiz Albarino Blend 2021
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Wilfred
Wong - Decanter
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Clear and bright yellow. Intense and complex nose showcasing aromas of fruit (apple, pear, apricot), herbs (lemon verbena, aniseed), and mineral notes. Full bodied, its fruity complexity returns combined with wet-stone minerality on the palate prior to a long and crisp finish. The combination of five native grape varieties to Rias Baixas makes this a wine with a uniquely distinct character.
Blend: 74% Albarino, 10% Loureiro, 7% Godello, 5% Treixadura, 4% Caino Blanco
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2021 Santiago Ruiz White Wine Blend is bright and energetic. TASTING NOTES: This wine offers aromas and flavors of mineral notes and tangy citrus. Enjoy it with a dozen or two raw oysters. (Tasted: December 6, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
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Decanter
Tangy, intense and very attractive wine with bright white peach, apple and lemon scents and flavours, rapier-like acidity and a long, bone-dry finish. Blend : 84% Albariño, 6% Godello, 4% Loureiro
Other Vintages
2022-
Wilfred
Wong
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Wilfred
Wong
Santiago Ruiz is located in an idyllic, peaceful setting surrounded by several acres of old vines trellised in the traditional style. Lovingly housed in a charming 17th century building, the winery perfectly combines time-honored tradition with the very latest advances in technology.
The estate is based in the heart of the municipality of Tomiño. Here, in a spectacular expanse of soils rich in minerals and surrounded by forests, 94 acres of native grape varieties true to the area are cultivated: Albariño, Loureiro, Treixadura, Caiño Blanco and Godello. In 2007 Santiago Ruiz completed construction on a new winery in Tomiño, at the foot of the vineyards equipped with the most advanced technology.
Bright and aromatic with distinctive floral and fruity characteristics, Albariño has enjoyed a surge in popularity and an increase in plantings over the last couple of decades. Thick skins allow it to withstand the humid conditions of its homeland, Rías Baixas, Spain, free of malady, and produce a weighty but fresh white. Somm Secret—Albariño claims dual citizenship in Spain and Portugal. Under the name Alvarinho, it thrives in Portugal’s northwestern Vinho Verde region, which predictably, borders part of Spain’s Rías Baixas.
Named after the rías, or estuarine inlets, that flow as far as 20 miles inland, Rías Baixas is an Atlantic coastal region with a cool and wet maritime climate. The entire region claims soil based on granite bedrock, but the inlets create five subregions of slightly different growing environments for its prized white grape, Albariño.
Val do Salnés on the west coast is said to be the birthplace of Albariño; it is the coolest and wettest of all of the regions. Having been named as the original subregion, today it has the most area under vine and largest number of wineries.
Ribeira do Ulla in the north and inland along the Ulla River is the newest to be included. It is actually the birthplace of the Padrón pepper!
Soutomaior is the smallest region and is tucked up in the hills at the end of the inlet called Ria de Vigo. Its soils are light and sandy over granite.
O Rosal and Condado do Tea are the farthest south in Rías Baixas and their vineyards actually cover the northern slopes of the Miño River, facing the Vinho Verde region in Portugal on its southern bank.
Albariño gives this region its fame and covers 90% of the area under vine. Caiño blanco, Treixadura and Loureira as well as occasionally Torrontés and Godello are permitted in small amounts in blends with Albariño. Red grapes are not very popular but Mencía, Espadeiro and Caiño Tinto are permitted and grown.