Because I liked Todd's wine so much and because it seemed as if he was a lone ranger kind of guy, I was interested to know what his Galicia looked like.
I knew the commercial face, a lot of wine I couldn't drink. Gallo is rules there with its brands like Martin Codax and Kendall-Jackson is buiding a big estate --plantations are underway. I had been warned by the marketing arm that organic is very difficult in Galicia,so wet, I was told.
See the celery green part of the map north of Pontevedra? That's the region, the Val do Salnes.
First to his vineyards. Todd wants very much to focus on single vineyard albarinos. This was in his organic one--the kind of organic they say is so hard to do ;) in back of a church. The spongy, healthy soil---with diviets from the massive amounts of rain--was filled with thyme and mint and chunks of remarkable red/pink granite. 
I never saw this kind of granite in soil, gorgeous stuff and they were all around. To see them in the sun might have been exquisite, like TinkerBells in the vineyard. But it was as green as Ireland and as soggy.
Inside his winery, in front of the Xoan vineyard, Todd took me through the wines, but first he had a sip of chocolate milk.
Now, he's only been making wine since 2003, and is figuring it out. But he has talent. Definitely has talent. One of his odd ideas involves that chocolate milk --and yes you can say I'm a tease--go ahead--and that he often does not destem.
Once again, I shock myself with my lazy notes. It is so hard to pull myself from conversation to write, if there was only a way to record my thoughts. Where is the iPhone microphone for the brain?
The 2005 Bemil was extremely creamy on the nose and punchy with mandarin with a slight reduction, in a way that seems compelling, that note that I say is like halitosis--but in a good way.
The 2004 Bemil had a bit of spritz, a cold metal finish and more mandarin.
The 2005 Saiar was tangeriney and had some oxidation.
2008 Saiar, bitter arugula greeness with pineapple and the hintiest of tropical but NOT tropicale, if you know what I mean?
Notes are silly. What's the point. Here's what's important. He's in the rarity of folk working with native yeast. All of the wines had brilliant acidity, enough to please acid freaks around the world, enough tangerine, mandarinity to mark it's difference and a freshness that is lacking in so many of the modern Albarinos.
See the celery green part of the map north of Pontevedra? That's the region, the Val do Salnes.
First to his vineyards. Todd wants very much to focus on single vineyard albarinos. This was in his organic one--the kind of organic they say is so hard to do ;) in back of a church. The spongy, healthy soil---with diviets from the massive amounts of rain--was filled with thyme and mint and chunks of remarkable red/pink granite. 
I never saw this kind of granite in soil, gorgeous stuff and they were all around. To see them in the sun might have been exquisite, like TinkerBells in the vineyard. But it was as green as Ireland and as soggy.
Inside his winery, in front of the Xoan vineyard, Todd took me through the wines, but first he had a sip of chocolate milk.
Now, he's only been making wine since 2003, and is figuring it out. But he has talent. Definitely has talent. One of his odd ideas involves that chocolate milk --and yes you can say I'm a tease--go ahead--and that he often does not destem.
Once again, I shock myself with my lazy notes. It is so hard to pull myself from conversation to write, if there was only a way to record my thoughts. Where is the iPhone microphone for the brain?
The 2005 Bemil was extremely creamy on the nose and punchy with mandarin with a slight reduction, in a way that seems compelling, that note that I say is like halitosis--but in a good way.
The 2004 Bemil had a bit of spritz, a cold metal finish and more mandarin.
The 2005 Saiar was tangeriney and had some oxidation.
2008 Saiar, bitter arugula greeness with pineapple and the hintiest of tropical but NOT tropicale, if you know what I mean?
Notes are silly. What's the point. Here's what's important. He's in the rarity of folk working with native yeast. All of the wines had brilliant acidity, enough to please acid freaks around the world, enough tangerine, mandarinity to mark it's difference and a freshness that is lacking in so many of the modern Albarinos.
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