It spent a small amount of time in french oak, (like four months) but it has such a great expression both in aroma and on palate.
WINE DETAILS:
Grape: Souson
Alcohol: 13.5%
Wine: Ailala
Vintage: 2017
Winery: Ailala
DO: Ribeiro
Location: Galicia, Spain
Date: 7/14/21
Distributor: Vinos de Mallorca
Curious Synonyms: Vinhao, Souzao, Pinta Femea, Negrao Pe De Perdiz
Nerd Alert: Dark-skinned grape variety with origins that go back to the west of the Iberian Peninsula. Although often thought to be a teinturier grape, because of the intense red color of its wines, Souson does not, in fact, have pigmented flesh. Vineyard acreage is on the increase in Portugal, while also growing in Galicia, northwestern Spain.
Personal Note: Humans are social animals. We are meant to be in groups (even if some of us prefer to be loners sometimes). Wine is made to be shared so it makes it the perfect drink for us. So I’m a big fan of sharing a bottle with old friends or new friends alike.
I learned that it is really hard to come across this grape as a monovarietal since it’s usually part of blends due to it’s limited availability. That being said, and maintaining my critical honesty about this project, today, with this wine, I end up breaking the 90% rule. It was inadvertently. The label described the wine as Sousón and most sites online only talked about that grape. Maybe it’s a D.O. thing, like in California Central Valley where a wine can be called a Cabernet Sauvignon as long as it has 75% of that grape. It wasn’t ultil I went to the winery’s website that I read this wine is only 85% Souson.
Now I knew this day was coming, and all things considered, mainly the level of difficulty of finding a wine of this grape with this high % means that It’s an opportunity I have to embrace. Also, the remaining 15% is made of Brancellao, Ferrol and Caiño so it makes for a nice participation mention.
As per the wine itself I was really impressed by the quality. It spent a small amount of time in french oak, (like four months) but it has such a great expression both in aroma and on palate with hints of plum, blueberry, maybe some minimal hints of cinnamon. It was rounded on the tannins and long on finish. Guia Penin gave it 90. A very fun discovery.
Thoughts?
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*Sources for the wine facts are from: Wine Searcher, Wikipedia, Vivino, wine.com, and the wineries websites.
