MundoVino Portfolio Book

Licia & Finca de Arantei | Lee-See-Ya | & /Feen-Ka deh Are-Ahn-Teh/ DO Rías Baixas (Galicia), Spain

Jose Limeres, a native of the Galician town of Pontevedra and owner of several successful restaurants in Madrid, entered the wine business in 1985 when he was searching for a reliable supplier of quality wines for his restaurants. He bought his first property in O Rosal and planted native varieties that flourished in the area’s unique climate and soil. The resulting wines proved a hit, particularly his Albariño, which strikes just the right balance of sugar and acidity. His property, Bodegas La Val, is located in the DO of Rías Baixas, in Galicia. Limeres’s first vineyard, in O Rosal, is nestled on the Minho River, close to the Atlantic coast—an optimal area for Albarino due to the drier climate and warmer growing season. In the years that followed, Limeres expanded with three more vineyards in the area, and today his property covers two hundred acres of land. Soil types in the vineyards range from alluvial and granitic to slate, allowing Limeres to produce both terroir -driven, single-estate wines as well as carefully constructed blends. Licia Albariño Licia, whose name pays tribute to the autonomy of Galicia, is made exclusively for MundoVino by Bodegas La Val. It contains 100 percent estate-grown Albariño from the southern sub-zones of O Rosal and Condado de Tea. The warmer vineyard locations, plus the absence of any filler grapes such as Treixadura, makes Licia an intensely aromatic and elegant expression of the Albariño grape and an excellent complement to fine cuisine. The nose bursts with minerality, and the palate is medium-bodied with excellent acidity and a long finish. 2014: 88 WE | 2013: 89 WS | 2007: 92 W&S Finca de Arantei Single Vineyard Albariño Finca Arantei is the pinnacle of Bodegas La Val’s line. It is a single-estate-varietal Albariño, which is rare in Rías Baixas, where cooperatives dominate. The Arantei vineyard occupies 87.5 acres of rocky, sandy soil in the subzone of Condado de Tea, the heart of the Miño Valley, which gets some of the most ample sunshine in the DO. The wine is aged on its lees for three months before bottling, which creates elegant flavors and a creamy mouthfeel. Pale straw-yellow in color, with distinct floral and mineral aromas, this wine is among the most refined and elegant examples of this variety. It is medium-bodied with excellent acidity and a lengthy finish, lively and complex, with a racy character reminiscent of some of the best Alsatian Rieslings. 2014: 88 WA, 89 WE | 2013: 90 WE | 2010: 90 WA

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WINES OF SPAIN