Luis Rodriguez "Escolma" Ribeiro Blanco 2019

The elegant, nuanced and characterful 2019 Viña de Martín Escolma Blanco comes from the oldest vines and the poorer soils that produce no more than one kilo of grapes per vine. Fermented in new or semi-new, 500- and 600-liter barrels and matured with lees for one year. It is released four years after the harvest. It has a certain austerity and mineral elegance, with notes of herbs and wet stones, a medium-bodied palate with pungent flavors and very good depth and complexity, long and persistent. 

From the lowest yielding old vines, comprised of mostly Treixadura, planted on steep granite hillsides. "Escolma" means “selection” in Gallego. This top cuvée is only produced in excellent vintages. Fermented by wild yeast in a variety of sizes of French oak barrels, raised on the lees for 12 months, and further aged in the bottle for 36 months.

The vines for this wine are from around Arnoia, the same town as Luis’s winery. The soils here are decomposed granite and sand. The fruit of the oldest and lowest yielding vines is used for the Escolma, from parcels on terraces on the steep hillsides above the Arnoia and Miño rivers.

Each of the many plots is harvested by hand, destemmed and fermented with native yeasts in used French oak barrels, then raised in the same vessels for 12 months on the fine lees. Bottled after gentle clarification with bentonite and mechanical filtration, with a small addition of SO2, then aged in bottle for three years before release.