2021 Lagar de Costa "Calabobos" Albarino Rias Baixas

Tasted once again, the 2021 Calabobos is an Albariño produced with grapes from a plot of 37-year-old vines. It matured in concrete egg for 15 months and has good ripeness. It's expressive this year, with pronounced leesy aromas, a juicy texture and salty minerality. It has notable acidity and freshness that make you salivate. It has 12.7% alcohol, a pH of 3.15 and 8.1 grams of acidity. 2,500 bottles were filled in June 2023. It's aging slowly. (LG)

This was named after the region's light rain and it begs the question, was it named before or after the wine was made? The use of Concrete egg does enhance the saline quality of the wine; that marine layer salty tang to the air quality. I love it when a wine or spirit has that quality. I love it when the sea reasserts its presence to me, it is surprising how often it does not, but that has nothing to do with this wine. The wine is not all salt and sea shanties, the most prominent element on the nose is the fruit. The additional aging does help the wine exert more fruit character. Those peach/apricot tones are deeper and accented with tropical tones. There are also subtle floral and herbal elements to this. This has a surprisingly complex nose. The intensity of the nose is more than matched on the palate. Those fruit tones are contrasted to mouthwatering fleur de sel notes, I can almost imagine a thin crystal dissolving on my tongue on this wine’s very long finish. In the space between the fruit and the minerality those pretty floral and herbal tones reside; they quietly persist alongside the most intense flavors. What a wine; It is, and it isn’t an amplification of the Albariño. I find myself with a desire for cioppino, grilled fish, croquettes...