Gaba do Xil O Barreiro Branco Valdeorras 2022
Gaba do Xil O Barreiro Branco Valdeorras 2022
The pioneering duo of Pablo Eguzkiza and Telmo Rodríguez started working in the Val do Bibei in 2002. Recognizing the potential to make world-class wines in this historic valley, they began a project that would take more than a decade to come to fruition: planting massale selection indigenous varieties from old vineyards that would eventually become O Barreiro.
Gaba do Xil is named for the hillsides of the Sil River, which is the lifeblood of the mountainous interior of Galicia with its continental influences and as the gateway to the Atlantic coast. Gaba do Xil are the estate-grown red and white village wines which serve as an introduction to the limited production single cru wines of Ladeiras do Xil, offering the drinker an incredible value for handmade Galician wines.
Gaba do Xil O Barreiro is a white wine produced from a single 16ha estate vineyard located at 400-500m in altitude, near the town of Larouco, which lies south of the Sil River with an Atlantic influence due to its location in a valley that forms an outlet to the sea. It was fermented in Lugar de Valbuxán, an old, historic pazo and winery in O Bolo county they renovated and brought back to life. With the restoration of Valbuxán, the wines of Ladeiras do Xil are now being made in the terruño of their historic homeland.
O Barreiro expresses the Atlantic character of this part of Valdeorras through its native varieties (mostly godello, but with other indigenous white grapes like doña blanca and treixadura) farmed organically and grown on red slate and clay soils. 2021 is the first vintage for the O Barreiro vineyard selection from Gaba do Xil, with very low yields and reduced volume, it is an incredibly expressive, mineral wine with a complex structure. O Barreiro is fresh and precise, with salty minerality and a long, dry finish.
Gaba do Xil is produced with organic, ancestral farming, and low intervention in a polyculture setting.
Vinification – Whole bunches are hand harvested in small boxes, with a meticulous selection made in the vineyard. The bunches are gently pressed and the wine undergoes a spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts in temperature stainless steel tanks. Post fermentation, the wine is racked into stainless steel tanks, where it is then aged for four months on its fine lees without bâtonnage. No malolactic fermentation. Bottled unfiltered.