Envínate Lousas Doad Ribeira Sacra 2023

Aromas of sour red cherries, raspberries, tobacco, herbs, crushed rocks, earth and violets. This is heady and gorgeous with a lovely, primary quality to the tones. Medium-bodied, deft and elegant, with crisp, medium acidity and silky tannins. Herbal and peppery, like a richly textured Loire Cab Franc.

Lousas Doad Ribeira Sacra 2023 is from several vineyards in the town of Doade that range in age from 23-65 years. The lower vineyards are mainly schist, giving way to gneiss and quartz in the upper parts. The grapes were harvested by hand and fermented whole-cluster in open-top fermenters with 25-30 days of skin contact before pressing with a vertical press into a mix of 500, 350, and 228 liter used French oak barrels to finish and rest for a year.

Lousas, the name in Galician to designate the type of "slate" soil that predominates in the Armandi sub-zone of the Ribeira Sacra, gives its name to the range of wines produced by Envínate in the Ribeira Sacra in collaboration with Galician viticultors. These wines are marked by the influence of the Atlantic and the slate soils in the singular vineyards where they come from.

Manually harvested with grape selection in the vineyard, each plot is vinified separately with indigenous yeasts. 40% of the grapes are fermented whole clusters in small open plastic tubs. Aged for 11 months in neutral oak barrels.

Envínate (translates as "wine yourself") is the brainchild of four friends, winemakers Roberto Santana, Alfonso Torrente, Laura Ramos, and José Martínez. This gang of four formed back in 2005 while studying enology at the University of Miguel Hernandez in Alicante. Upon graduation, they formed a winemaking consultancy, which evolved into Envínate, a project that focuses on exploring distinctive parcels mainly in the Atlantic-inflected regions of Ribeira Sacra and the Canary Islands. Their collective aim is to make profoundly pure and authentic wines that express the terruño of each parcel in a clear and concise manner. To this end, no chemicals are used in any of the Envínate vineyards, all parcels are picked by hand, the grapes are foot-trodden, and the wines are fermented exclusively with wild yeasts, with a varying proportion of whole grape clusters included. For aging, the wines are raised in old barrels and concrete, and sulfur is only added at bottling, if needed. The results are some of the most exciting and honest wines being produced in Spain today.