MESTEIRAL Albariño Sin SO2 2025

MESTEIRAL ALBARIÑO SO2-FREE 2025

Mesteiral 2025 is the brainchild of Adrián Guerra, a figure deeply connected to Galician wine culture. Adrián was one of the founding partners of Bagos, the legendary wine tavern in Pontevedra that became a go-to spot for discovering small producers and minimal-intervention wines.

He currently works at Viños Vivos, a distributor specializing in these types of wines, maintaining his passion for artisanal winemaking and the less conventional expressions of Galician terroir.

Mesteiral now represents his role as a winemaker. To create it, Adrián collaborates with José Manuel Rodríguez, a winemaker and producer of wines such as Xesteiriña, DO Biolo Albariño, and DO Biolo Tinto. Their collaboration has resulted in an Albariño conceived with freedom, minimal intervention, and a particularly natural interpretation of the varietal.

Philosophy

Mesteiral was born with a very clear premise: to let the grapes and fermentation speak for themselves.

The grapes come from trusted growers who cultivate their vineyards according to organic farming practices. Adrián selects the raw material, seeking healthy and balanced fruit, and the winemaking process then unfolds with minimal intervention.

No SO₂ is added at any point in the process, neither during vinification nor bottling. It is neither clarified nor filtered. The result is deliberately different from that of a conventional Albariño: a vibrant, cloudy, expressive wine with a personality that makes no attempt to conceal its origin or the character of its unpretentious production.

It is a philosophy very close to that of natural wines, but with something particularly interesting: behind this apparent spontaneity lies the knowledge of José Manuel Rodríguez and his experience working with Albariño from Rías Baixas from a minimal intervention perspective. Their Do Biolo wines also begin with spontaneous fermentations using indigenous yeasts and aging processes that aim to preserve the grape's identity.

Production, Vintage, Vineyard, and Variety

Mesteiral 2025 is a 100% Albariño from vineyards located in the Rías Baixas region. The grapes are sourced from trusted growers who cultivate their plots using organic farming practices.

The wine is produced at José Manuel Rodríguez's winery and follows a very similar approach to that used in his Xesteiriña and Do Biolo Albariño: meticulous attention to the raw material, minimal intervention, and spontaneous fermentation with the grapes' own yeasts. For Do Biolo, José Manuel uses direct pressing and spontaneous fermentations in stainless steel and used barrels, seeking to preserve the Albariño's expression.

In Mesteiral, Adrián takes this philosophy even further by not adding sulfites at any stage. The wine ferments and ages in 500-liter barrels, where it naturally develops its personality.

Finally, it is bottled unfined and unfiltered, preserving some of the natural particles from fermentation and aging. Hence its cloudy appearance, perfectly consistent with its winemaking philosophy.

The result is an Albariño that deliberately departs from the clean, bright, and purely varietal profile of many Rías Baixas wines. Here, the fruit, lees, aging, and fermentation come together in a much more spontaneous and complex whole.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Intense golden yellow, with a naturally cloudy or hazy appearance due to the wine not being fined or filtered.

Nose: Extraordinarily expressive, wild, and ever-changing. Notes of apricot and stone fruit are clearly present, accompanied by balsamic nuances, aromatic herbs, and hints of fermentation. It has a slightly rustic dimension in the best sense of the word, with a natural and profoundly vibrant expression.

Palate: Flavorful, fresh, and with an enveloping texture. Ripe fruit is accompanied by an acidity that keeps the wine lively and a marked saline sensation that lingers on the palate. It is expressive but not heavy, with a slightly creamy texture from aging and a remarkable ability to induce salivation. The finish is long, mineral, and balsamic, leaving a very clean sensation despite its untamed character.

Mesteiral doesn't strive for sterile perfection: it seeks personality. And it finds it in a combination of stone fruit, freshness, salinity, balsamic notes, and a natural expression that is truly unusual in an Albariño.

Pairing

Mesteiral 2025 is a particularly gastronomic wine and demands products that are up to the task. Its saline character makes it a magnificent companion to oysters, barnacles, clams, cockles, razor clams and other shellfish, while its structure and texture allow it to accompany other seafood as well.