Pazo de Barrantes La Comtesse Albarino 2011
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Robert
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Spectator
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Suggested serving temperature of 13-14ºC with a bit of time to breath. La Comtesse de Pazo Barrantes pairs well with crayfish and stuffed spider crab, white meats, stuffed fowls, sushi, cow and sheep's cheeses served with glazed fruit and foie.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 La Comtesse, the oaked Albariño from the winery, is a wine that fermented in 3,000-liter French oak vat at low temperature for 40 days where it matured in contact with the fine lees for one year. It rests for one more year before it's sold. the fruit comes from a single vineyard called Cacheiro, the older vines on the property, which give low yields. the wine is a clear step up over the 2010 (where I found the oak much better integrated), a serious and defined nose, with freshly cut grass, balsamic, serious, with pit fruit (peach) and a savory edge. The palate is medium-bodied, with good volume and acidity, balanced, with very well integrated wood, providing just texture, supple and with a salty finish. If you have to oak an Albariño this is how it should be done. The 3,000-liter vat was new in 2009 and then used in subsequent vintages, so you see how the integration is better each new vintage.
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Wine Spectator
Smooth and dense, this polished white offers pear, toasted almond, vanilla and brioche flavors that are graceful and harmonious. There's a good balance of fruit and savory notes that resolve on the long, minerally finish. Drink now through 2017.
Other Vintages
2016-
James
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Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator
Pazo de Barrantes is part of the Marqués de Murrieta family, one of the founding fathers of modern Spanish winemaking. The winery has been associated to the Counts of Creixell since the beginning of the 20th century, and the property in the hands of the family since 1511. Over the years, the Count of Creixell´s family has given its own personality to every wine produced at the winery. In the 1990s, the Galician property turned into an estate designed specifically for the albariño growing, the great and noble local grape variety. This enabled the family to join all the efforts to offer careful and precise winemaking in the heart of the Salnés Valley.
The Pazo de Barrantes estate is located in the Salnés Valley of Rías Baixas and is the largest single estate in the valley. The property is close to the Galician coast in the western part of Spain, just north of Portugal. The winery is settled near the southern tip of the Rioja Alta in the middle of the beautiful Ygay Estate, a unique 300 hectare vineyard that guarantees complete control over the grape source of the wines and is the key to the quality and style of Marqués de Murrieta wines
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.