Augalevada Ollos de Roque

The white that expresses the character of Augalevada's estate vineyard is the 2018 Ollos de Roque, a blend of Treixadura, Lado and Agudelo (Chenin Blanc, from Betanzos) that follows the path of the 2017, with low alcohol and very high acidity. The 11-year-old vines are worked organically and biodynamically and are planted on decomposed granite soils rich in silica. Iago Garrido, Augalevada's proprietor, picked the crunchy grapes, pressed the clusters and started fermenting the juice in stainless steel, but the fermentation finished in a combination of oak barrels and clay tinajas (amphorae). During the 10 months of élevage in 600-liter barrique and 400-liter tinaja, the wines developed a veil of flor yeasts. He only added a little SO2 before bottling. This follows the style of the 2017, working with the flor and a little more oak (but not looking for aromas or flavors), because he started with only tinaja, and in this wine, maybe only 30% of the volume comes from tinaja. This might not be as wild as the 2017, but it's more precise; it's clean, sharp, symmetric and electric, with smoky-like notes, perhaps the autolysis of the yeasts. The nose is quite expressive within the austere profile it usually has. The wine is very tasty with the purity of the granite soils and the almost salty finish. 2,600 bottles produced.