Rock star Galician winemaker Rodrigo Mendez is a fifth generation winemaker whose grandfather was one of the founders of the Rias Baixas DOC. His uncle and cousin, Gerardo and Manuel Mendez, run the prominent Do Ferreiro winery in Salnés and while Rodrigo also inherited vineyards (his eponymous label uses only estate fruit), he began Leirana in order to help preserve historic vineyards in the area. He buys fruit from, and often farms for, people whose inherited plot is too small to make winemaking or even grape growing economically feasible. Co-founded with another famous Spanish winemaker, Raul Perez, (the pair have another project together that we enjoyed in June 2022, the Castro Candaz red blend, and we’ve enjoyed Raul Perez’s handiwork with the Tilenus Mencia from Bierzo in March 2022) they make Albariño in a style that their grandfathers would recognize, eschewing the cultured lab yeasts that give standard-issue Rias Baixas Albariño banana and tropical flavors. The organically farmed old vines are also left to ripen longer than the norm, and malolactic fermentation is blocked in order to preserve the remaining acidity that is needed to accompany the region’s food. There’s no tropical fruit here, unless you wanted to call unripe pineapple core, but loads of meyer lemon and lemon curd, rose petals, concentrated Bosc pear and rind, dried apple, butterscotch, sea brine and a touch of tarragon. An excellent pairing with the full kaleidoscope of shellfish, octopus, and fish, but it's also delicious on its own.