Description
Antonio Montero, “Colleita” Ribeiro Blanco
The established white wine aristocracy hasn’t changed in a long time. There’s white Burgundy, of course, then there are the well-bred Rieslings of Germany, Alsace, Austria, and I’d make a strong case for Chenin Blanc from the Loire, too. And as we’ve been saying for a while now, it’s high time we admitted Galician white wines to the Royal Court, because they’ve shown us again and again that they belong there.
When I judge today’s white from Antonio Monteiro solely on its merits, it gets the nod from me, but then I look at the price and I’m flummoxed: How can this be? Was there a clerical error somewhere along the way? This may hail from the relatively unknown precincts of Ribeiro, but still, there’s so much wine here for the money I can’t completely get my mind around it. This may be the best example yet of Galicia’s modern wine renaissance, and its growing legion of new-generation vintners crafting show-stopping whites and reds from old vines in granite soils. We’ve featured many passion projects from the likes of Manuel Formigo, Luis Rodriguez, and Bernardo Estévez, and now it’s Montero’s turn in the spotlight. And what I said when we offered the 2018 “Colleita” still holds true: I can’t remember the last time I had a wine with so much real breed, or should I say nobility, at such a low price. This is paradigm-shifting wine!
Montero’s “Colleita” harkens back to an earlier era in Ribeiro, when growers sold wine in bulk formats to others. In 1970, after several decades of production strictly for local family consumption, Antonio Montero Álvarez (the current Antonio’s grandfather) ventured to sell his barrels of blended white and red wines to bars and taverns beyond his home village; by the ’80s, he was bottling the wine for sale throughout Galicia. The ’90s brought the construction of a winery and shortly thereafter an official business was formed. Despite expanding their holdings, Bodegas Antonio Montero only began exporting in 2015.
The Monteros’ significant vineyard holdings are mostly of the revered native white varieties Treixadura and Loureiro, as well as Torrontes, Albariño, and Palomino. All their vineyards, ranging from 20-70 years old, are planted in soils comprised largely of decomposed granite (locally called sabrego) co-located with clay and sand. Like most sites in Ribeiro, their dozens of parcels hug steep slopes running up from Ribeiro’s matrix of riverbanks to altitudes reaching over 1,000 feet. By no means the kind of sunbaked landscape found in central Spain, Ribeiro is cool, often rainy, sitting 30 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, pushing a consistent breezeway effect crisscrossing the various tributaries of the entire Miño River Valley. Coastal mountains and the mountainous Portuguese border (just 12 miles south) offer protection from winter storms out of the west. Wide temperature swings from day to night lend yet another beneficial factor ensuring the grapes long, slow ripening with fully formed flavors and aromatics whilst preserving natural, fresh acidity.
“Colleita” is a shining example, reflecting not just Ribeiro but a time-honored artisanal approach enhanced by the winery’s avant-garde modernity. Pulling from 30 different organically farmed parcels on various slopes and terraces, the grapes are entirely hand-harvested. Although the blend is 60% Palomino, the 40% Treixadura is the alpha component. Elegant and complex, Treixadura generates deeply nuanced wines and like other noble varieties, it beautifully transfers the expression of the environment in which it’s grown. After harvest, the grapes are then kept separate in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks for a long, cold natural fermentation. The wine gets bottled after a light filtration one year from harvest.
How can an “entry-level” wine deliver such a triple-threat performance? Subtle but dazzling fruit flavor, mineral grip, and lilting floral note? In the glass, it’s clear and bright, displaying a straw-yellow hue with greenish highlights running to the rim on a supple medium-sized body. Notes of apple blossom and garden herbs leap from the glass. The palate offers a polished texture with lively flavors of fresh pear, apricots, and citrus, with a spot-on framework of bright acidity. We went all-in on this again and I suggest you do the same so that finishing a bottle doesn’t reverse your great mood. Serve not-too-cold (50-55° F) in all-purpose stems and enjoy the effulgence of this Ribeiro beside some crudo, grilled octopus, or patatas bravas. There’s no time to waste: Vamos!
