Albamar 2017 O Esteiro Tinto 750ml

The red blend 2017 O Esteiro is the most expressive, open, aromatic and elegant of the reds. This year, it's super aromatic and perfumed, subtle, relaxed in the nose with great balance and a much more electric palate, like it had taken the best from each variety of the blend: Mencía, Caíño and Espadeiro. Caíño marks the nose of blends with those peppery notes, and the Espadeiro brings subtler, more floral aromas. The palate is compact and seamless, with very focused flavors and superb acidity, with fine tannins. This has to be the finest red blend to date, and it's good that this is the red with more production and therefore better availability, because it's a challenge to find some of the very scarce reds from Rías Baixas. There are 6,600 bottles of this. It was bottled in June 2019 after one year in barrel and eight months in stainless steel.

Score: 94+ points -- Luis Gutierrez, The Wine Advocate, 2020