Emilio Rojo "Castes Branco" Ribeiro '21

Emilio Rojo is a legendary cult wine. Founded by the winemaker of the same name (now made by Laura Montero since a change of ownership in 2019), it is the sort of singular, granularly focused project that cultivates rabid devotees, and is made in sparse enough quantities that it can begin to feel like a folktale more than something you can pour tangibly into a glass.

Indeed, under his own name, Emilio Rojo made only this one wine - a Treixadura dominated blend that incorporates a laundry list of other local white grapes to fill in the rest. If it feels like a love letter to the Ribeiro, situated just East of Rías Baixas in Galicia, it is nonetheless protected from the brunt of the Atlantic storms by the Sierra del Suido mountain range that separates the two regions. And the vines that Emilio Rojo tends are set against one of the oldest winemaking backdrops in Spain: the Avia Valley, a former Roman colony with a rich winemaking tradition dating back over 1,000 years. No small wonder, then, at the reverence in finer details.

Befitting that age, this is a white wine built for the long haul. For the 2021 vintage, Emilio left the juice on its lees for a year in tank, before bottling and holding another 18 months, allowing the wine to begin to find new layers of depth. Of course, this process is far from over, and another 5 - 7 years after the vintage date will continue to find new depths in the wash of striking minerality, the sharp sweetness of wild fennel, the mild earthy florals of chamomile, the bite of fresh citrus. I could wax poetic, but it'd run the risk of feeling trite against what lands in the glass.