Per today’s WA, Envinate’s Ribeira Sacra wines from 2023 will not be bottled as such, but LG doesn’t say why. I’m curious if anyone knows the story.
I don’t think this is really “new” news. Envínate and the D.O. (Appellation of Origin) Ribeira Sacra have had a long-standing dispute about the protocol for the approval by the DO. There is a blind-tasting phase that the wines must overcome before the administrative body grants its seal which is based on technical quality criteria. If the wines do not pass on a first test they have a second opportunity before the final decision of the tasting panel.
In 2017 the DO rejected a number of wines from Envínate arguing they were dirty, veiled or suffering from reduction (I apologize for my English: maybe these are not the correct technical terms). As a result, the owners of Envínate decided to pull out of the DO.
Based on the high ratings obtaned by most of their wines this comes across as a strange story, but this is what happened.
Attached please find the link to a local newspaper which explains the story in more depth. In Spanish, though.
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Probably the correct / more appropriate terms would be unclean, aldehydic (assuming meaning the wine had been aging under a flor or voile, which usually results in elevated levels of acetaldehyde) or suffering from reduction.
However, it’s weird if reduction is a reason to disqualify, as I’ve had lots of Galician reds that have been very reductive but still lovely as well.
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Envinate hasn’t used the DO back label for a while now. I think it has to do more with the style of the wines they are making not aligning itself with the rest. Its mostly beaurocratic. Same with Raul Perez and his Pecado and Penitencia bottlings.
I import both of them, and I could ask them for more information.
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To be fair. I do love these wines but sometimes they do in fact taste dirty and i’ve had significant bottle variation on most of their wines.
Interesting. I’ve never had issues, could you tell me which ones?
Benje Blanco in particular comes to mind because we used to open a lot of them.