2014 Selección de Añada, Pazo de Señoráns, Rías Baixas, Spain

Full bottle 1,358 g. Tasted blind and tasted again not blind) several times over several days. It was aged for 36 months on lees in stainless steel. Then, it was racked and aged in stainless steel until April 2023, when it was bottled.

When cold and in the first couple of days, the wine was smoky and so white-knuckle tense that it felt like a blow to the jaw. Bone on bone. Bitter. But day by day, it began to open; it was an extraordinary journey—day one: struck flint, lime pickle, a sulky sourpuss. By the time it had been open for a week, it was so heady, so floral, so aromatically luscious that if you'd handed me a glass without a word, I would have been confounded: Gewurz? Muscat? Viognier? Torrontés?

Too tense and sinew-stripped mineral for Gewurz. It's too terse and salty for Muscat. Too slim-waisted for Viognier. Too much steel-cut stone fruit for Torrontés. But rose petals. But clementine peel. But jasmine and black pepper. Candied lemon peel. Day 10: flowers and melted butter; golden gooseberries and mirabelle plums; grapefruit and bergamot. Diaphanous, perplexing. It is a moody, recalcitrant, capricious and utterly wonderful wine that proved to me that Albariño really can age.

Drink 2023 - 2035

Limpid gold. High-pitched citrus and orchard fruit scents are complemented by honeysuckle and smoky minerals. Juicy, penetrating and pure, offering vibrant pear skin and white peach flavours and a touch of fennel. Becomes spicier and fleshier with air, finishing with excellent clarity and length, leaving mineral and subtle leesy notes behind.

The ripe-pineapple character makes this much more satisfying than earlier vintages of this wine. Plenty of structure and some creaminess. Some soft tannins on the long finish, so this is a wine for richer food.

Drink or hold

It wasn't bottled until April 2023, and 14,000 bottles were produced.

I think the 2014 Albariño Selección de Añada could be the finest vintage of this characterful long-ageing Albariño, from a year with a more moderate 13% alcohol and very high acidity and low pH) that make the wine fresher and more vibrant. It is developing very slowly and showing quite young after it spent over 30 months with lees in 1,500- and 3,000-litre stainless steel tanks.

It has a pale colour and an elegant nose with notes of freshly cut grass, white flowers and wet granite. The palate is vibrant with effervescent acidity, and it has a long, dry and tasty finish with an austere sensation, far away from the tropical notes of some past vintages. This is superb and should continue developing nicely in bottle. Bravo!

Drink 2023 - 2032