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Gran Vinum Albariño Seleccion Especial

"This is the best rendition of Albariño I’ve tasted…….there’s no doubt that this is a superb wine in its own right while also being a clear category leader." —

Michael Franz, Editor Wine Review Online

Winery

GRAN VINUM, ADEGAS

Appellation

Rias Baixas D.O.

Grape(s)

100% Albariño, from the 50-year-old Miranda Aurosa, estate-grown vineyard

Altitude/Soil

10 meters / decomposed granitic sandy loam

Farming Methods

Traditional methods, Vegan

Harvest

Hand harvested in mid-late September, fruit was then hand sorted at the winery prior to processing

Production

Gently pressed to obtain only the most aromatic, free run juice; fermented in stainless steel tanks at low temperature

Aging

Aged on lees with weekly battonage in stainless steel tank for 7 months

Suggested Retail Price

$35

Wine Name

Scores

Downloads

Reviews

Gran Vinum Albariño Seleccion Especial 2017

93 (VM) 92+ (VfC) 91 EC (WE)

Score	Publication	Review	Copy
93	Vinous Media	Limpid, green-hued yellow. Powerful, deeply pitched melon, white peach and tangerine scents show excellent clarity and pick up a smoky mineral quality with aeration. Offers deeply concentrated, spice-tinged citrus fruit and honeydew flavors that tighten up steadily on the back half. Closes very long and smooth, with resonating peach and mineral qualities and a sexy floral nuance. Drink 2019-2024 Spain’s Northern Regions Keep it Cool – March 2019
92+	View from the Cellar	The Albariño “Selección Especial” from Adegas Gran Vinum hails from fifty year-old vines. It is given five months aging on its fine lees, with weekly stirrings, prior to bottling. The 2017 version is beautifully complex and detailed, offering up a complex bouquet of grapefruit, tart orange, gentle leesy tones, sea salts, stony minerality, lemongrass and a bit of oceanic brininess in the upper register. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied and focused, with a lovely core, impressive complexity and a long, vibrant and classy finish. This seems to be more user-friendly out of the blocks than the 2016 rendition (please see note below) and this is the vintage I would opt for drinking first, though both years are outstanding and will age long and gracefully. 2019-2035. Issue 78 - Nov/Dec 2018
91 EC	Wine Enthusiast	Peach and melon flavors are fresh but also full and slightly leesy. A citrusy palate is tight in structure, with lemony acidity keeping this Albariño crisp and focused. Orange and lime flavors are clean as polished glass, while this is long, pure and minerally on a stylish finish. Drink now. Editors' Choice - April 2019

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Gran Vinum Albariño Seleccion Especial 2018

92 (I-WR) 92 (VfC) 91 (WS)

Score	Publication	Review	Copy
92	International Wine Review	A 100% Albariño that’s rich and complex, offering fresh garden herbs, pineapple, and tropical fruit. Lovely purity and focus with a creamy mouth feel. Elegant with purity of fruit on the palate that evokes lemon tart. Purity extends to the finish with lemony acidity. Delicious and beautifully focused. "Spanish Wines of Value and Quality" - June 20, 2019
92	View from the Cellar	The 2018 “Selección Especial” from Adegas Gran Vinum is an outstanding young Albariño, offering up superb depth and complexity right out of the blocks, but also with the structure to age very nicely for at least the next decade. The bouquet wafts from the glass in a fine blend of lemon, tart pear, dried flowers, lovely minerality and a topnote of sea salts. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and beautifully light on its feet, with a good core, fine focus and grip, bright acids and very good length and grip on the complex finish. A very lovely bottle of Albariño. 2020-2030. Issue # 85 - January/February 2020
91	Wine Spectator	This white is rich and firm, with structure and depth. Pear, melon, ginger, tarragon and mineral notes are fresh and focused. Should age nicely. Drink now through 2026. 750 cases made, 420 cases imported. — TM October 2019

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Gran Vinum Albariño Seleccion Especial 2019

93 (VfC) 91 (WE)

Score	Publication	Review	Copy
93	View from the Cellar	Gran Vinum’s Seleccion Especial is produced from fifty-plus year-old Albarino vines. The wine is aged for seven months on its fine lees, with a small percentage of the blend raised in older Burgundy casks, rather than the stainless steel for the remainder of the cuvee. The 2019 offers up a lovely bouquet of grapefruit, lemon peel, ocean breeze saltiness, wild fennel and a lovely base of wet stone minerality. On the palate the wine is deep, vibrant, full-bodied and complex, with a fine core, excellent mineral drive and backend lift and a long, zesty and very well-balanced finish. This is drinking beautifully but will also age very gracefully. 2021-2035+ John Gilman - Issue #91 / February 2021
91	Wine Enthusiast	Apple and peach aromas are punched up by controlled briny notes that lend prickle and complexity to the nose. This is well built, fresh and flows nicely across the palate. Lightly briny apple and melon flavors benefit from crisp acidity and core minerality. Drink now. Michael Schachner - Issue June/July 2021

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Gran Vinum Albariño Seleccion Especial 2020

94 (WRO) 93 (VM) 92 (VfC)

Score	Publication	Review	Copy
94	Wine Review Online	"This is the best rendition of Albariño I’ve tasted this year, and though it carries a premium price, it is worth every penny, and surpasses in quality several wines that are my annual benchmarks (such as Pazo de Señorans, Fillaboa and Granbazan). In relation to those outstanding Albariños, this is physically denser and more concentrated, but without sacrificing any freshness, maintaining virtually perfect fruit-to-acidity balance through a long, symmetrical, mineral-tinged finish. The aromas show the lightest touch of floral scents without seeming perfumed, and the flavors are impressively deep but still precise, with no indication at all that the wine’s sheer size was achieved by pushing ripeness past an optimal point before harvesting. This excellent producer turns out three less expensive wines (Mar de Viñas and Nessa, both with list prices of $18 and Esencia Diviña at $24), all of which are excellent. Yet this wine, sourced from a single, estate vineyard, is stunning stuff that will very likely alter your sense of how good Albariño can be, and offer a reference point against which to judge everything else from this appellation. On top of all that, I’d bet it will become even better with a few more years in bottle…I just don’t know how much better for how many years. But there’s no doubt that this is a superb wine in its own right while also being a clear category leader." Michael Franz – August 10, 2021
93	Vinous Media	Pale yellow. Vibrant citrus and orchard fruit aromas are complemented by suggestions of jasmine and smoky minerals. Palate-staining Meyer lemon, pear nectar, honeysuckle and spicy ginger flavors are underscored by a repeating mineral nuance that builds as the wine opens up. Shows impressive depth but comes off lithe, finishing with strong, floral persistence and fine detail. Sourced from a single plot of 50-year-old vines and raised in stainless steel tanks. 2022 – 2027 Josh Raynolds - June 17, 2021 Atlantic Spain: It’s Always About the Weather…
92	View from the Cellar	The 2020 Albariño “Selección Especial” from Gran Vinum is an excellent bottle. The bouquet delivers a classic combination of green apple, lemon, salty minerality, gentle leesiness and a topnote of white flowers. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied and focused, with a good core of ripe fruit, lovely mineral drive and backend lift, zesty acids and a long, nascently complex and beautifully balanced finish. This has just been released and Gran Vinum makes some of the most age-worthy Albariño, so this will be even better with a bit of cellaring. But, it is already a very good drink! 2021-2035 John Gilman - Issue #92 March/April 2021

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Gran Vinum Albariño Seleccion Especial 2021

93+ (VfC) 92 (WRO)

Score	Publication	Review	Copy
93+	View from the Cellar	The Albariño “Selección Especial” from Adegas Gran Vinum is from the estate’s Miranda Aurosa vineyard, with the vines now fully fifty years of age. The wine is fermented and aged in stainless steel tank and is given four months of extended aging on its fine lees. The 2021 vintage offers up a beautiful bouquet of fresh lime, green apple, salty minerality, lemongrass, a hint of smokiness and a lovely array of floral tones in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, crisp and complex, with a lovely core, fine mineral undertow and grip, impressive focus and a long, perfectly balanced finish. This is very serious Albariño! 2022-2035+. John Gilman - Issue #98 March/April 2022
92	Wine Review Online	The 2021 vintage was a tough one in Rías Baixas according to several sources, and I tasted more than a few washed out examples earlier this year that seem to confirm these reports. To date, this is the best 2021 example I’ve tasted, and though it is a click or two below the quality level at which this wine usually shows, it is quite a success when considered in context. The bouquet shows light, pleasant floral notes and primary fruit aromas recalling stone fruits — especially fresh, ripe apricots and nectarines. The balancing acidity is perfectly adequate, and the freshness factor is aided by a higher degree of unresolved carbon dioxide than I’m accustomed to in this wine, actually seeming a bit pétillant or frizzante when first opened — though the wine settles down in short order. Beyond being a very good showing for the vintage, this is a very good wine, full stop. Michael Franz - Aug 16, 2022

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Gran Vinum Albariño Seleccion Especial 2022

95 (WRO) 94 (OB) 93+ (VfC) 93 (W&S)

Label

Shelf Talker

Fact Sheet

Score	Publication	Review	Copy
95	Wine Review Online	In three words: Stupendously wonderful Albariño. In a few more words, this is a real outlier in the region, where most wines are cobbled together from many little plots, but this is sourced from 50-year-old vines in a single, estate grown site called Miranda Aurosa. The tiny plots in Rías Baixas result from the splitting of inheritances across generations, coupled with a strain of the local culture that is resistant to sell land. Nothing wrong with that, but of course there’s a grave disadvantage to trying to render a consistent and superb wine from fruit drawn lots of different sites that were tended in different ways, and try as one might—getting many growers to toe a single line is an exercise in futility. To layer on yet another surprise, few vines of Albariño were even in existence fifty years ago, as the variety had to be brought back from near extinction by means of selecting the best of the remaining vines and then propagating and replanting them. But enough of details and history: This is remarkable for its concentration and depth of flavor, with textural richness that is reminiscent of excellent Semillon much more than a light, citrus-driven varietal wine like Pinot Grigio, which is true for many current renditions of Albariño. Although it is an unusually “big” rendition of this variety, there is enough acidity to keep it fresh and make its ensemble of fruit flavors sing. Those include orchard fruits above all, but additionally, one finds suggestions of baked apples, poached pears, and quince. This has nothing to do with the Albariño you will find in a run-of-mill retail shop or grocery store, so think swordfish steak or even roasted pork shoulder as a pairing partner, and even then, buckle up beforehand. Michael Franz - Oct 17, 2023
94	OwenBargreen.com	2022 Gran Vinum ‘Selección Especial’ Albarino- Coming from 50-year-old Albarino vines sourced from the Miranda Aurosa estate vineyard, the 2022 Gran Vinum ‘Selección Especial’ Albarino is a simply magical new Albarino that has loads of aging potential. Mineral-laden, with loads of underlying finesse, the wine shows off salty peach and kiwi flavors that combine with pear and nectarine flavors, with grassy undertones. This is truly one of the great wines of its kind that you will taste, as this beauty will no doubt develop nutty and earthy undertones as it cellars gracefully. Drink 2023-2033- Owen Bargreen - October, 2023
93+	View from the Cellar	The 2022 Selección Especial from Gran Vinum is also made from fifty year-old vines, with the wine aged five months on its fine lees with weekly stirring to add complexity. The wine offers up beautiful aromatic complexity, delivering scents of grapefruit, lemon, a touch of menthol, wet stone minerality, ocean breeze and a topnote of limepeel. On the palate the wine is deep, fullbodied, zesty and more reserved in profile than the Esencia Diviña bottling, with an excellent core of fruit and mineral drive, lovely balance and a long, nascently complex and very precise finish. I know I am in the extreme minority in aging my Albariño, but this is one wine that I would not hesitate to tuck in the cellar for another year or two and just let time work its magic! It is an outstanding young Albariño. 2024-2040. John Gilman - Issue #105 May/June 2023.
93	Wine & Spirits Magazine	Think of the spring scents of apple blossoms stored in an autumn apple—you’ll have something close to the fresh and bright flavor of this wine. It comes along with Meyer-lemon acidity and substantial weight, the depth of flavor contributed by 50-year-old vines. In Galicia, you could enjoy this with game fish or percebes. It would also be mouthwatering with fat Diver scallops in a Cantonese presentation with ginger and soy. Joshua Greene – October 18, 2023

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