ZARATE Estate Albariño 2014

Eulogio Pomares has raised a ripper from the Salnes granite in 2014. A waft of the nearby Atlantic adds an entrancing saline line above the granite and below the prickly pear/cut apple fruit. This trio work together perfectly in the mouth as well, with a touch of pearl giving a gurgling, running brook effect.

ZARATE Estate Albariño 2013

Honey and light lemon tart lashed with lemon sherbet and a rub of tomato leaf; this is crackling and flinty fine. On the palate field herbs and typical high acidity add fresh lift to serious depth of fruit and lees texture - a beautiful combination with precisely balanced execution. This wine smashes the concept of Albariño as a white to ice and guzzle on a summer’s day without a thought.

ZARATE Estate Albariño 2012

2012 is a cracker of a white wine year in Spain, and Zarate as good as they get. Highly textural, mineral wine with a gravelly granitic mouth feel overlaid with apple florals and grapefruit zing. Aromatics and texturality are beautifully matched: pretty and direct jasmine, elderflower, granny smith, green citric zest, sherbety acidity, sandy minerals, a titch of lanolin creaminess and a delicate bitter herb crunch to finish. 

ZARATE Estate Albariño 2011

Zesty, jumping with floral-apple typical of Salnes. Saline, mineral and subtly skinsy, Palate leads with a really glorious lick of fruit tannin plushness, which releases into a juicy, salivatory acid run. Traces of earthiness spec the bright fruit and it’s quietly, sensationally textural.

ZARATE Estate Albariño 2009

Slightly deeper, but undiminished lemon-straw colour, fat lemon drop lollies, touch of gingery lime zest, mineral, a touch of saline run. Fuller in mouth with EV Rizz like soft sand and gently degrading yellow skins all soft and squoozy and acid/tannin exo-structure still perfectly in place. 

ZARATE Estate Albariño 2005

Shaley and golden, smelling of decomposing old flowers with touches of dry honey, acacia and old wattle. It drinks exactly as it smells, old, golden, drily rich, concentrated and delicious without being overly thick, and good length and freshness.

ZARATE Balado Albariño 2011

Grass, lemon drop, nashi, orange peel, a touch of spice and fresh-cut pineapple, this is replete with the beauty of Albariño fruit expression.  It’s also wonderfully textural with typical sandy-earthiness and great tension from the interplay between acidic run and lees-aged texture. Extended lees ageing gives richness, but this does not so much divert from Salnes Albariño classicism as texturally enhance it. The underpinning of granitic grippiness in the mouthfeel, along with grassy, sea breeze and mineral aspects are entirely classical – linear with an elevated textural heart, this is an extension of the regular Zarate white, rounded in the middle yet overwhelmingly mouth-watering.

ZARATE Tras da Vinya Albariño 2004

Mid-gold, still with significant green tinges. A golden nose, likewise is shot through with green, grass and herb as well as the powerful and rich fruit character. It’s not heavy, nor sweet and there is no sign of phenolic breakdown. Remarkable.

ZARATE ‘el Palomar’ Albariño 2004

Rindy, old apples fading but still some appeal (this was only the second ever Palomar and the 2200 litre was only second use), rather like 10yo Barossa Semillon.

ZARATE ‘el Palomar’ Albariño 2002

Stone fruit, golden earth, and blossom of almond and orange. There's a sense of warmth, with clean but very full fruit really nicely gathered around a slender trunk, a through-line of metal/acid/tannin. Good and interesting, this wine has energy, focus, expression and tension.