Bodegas y Viñedos Rodrigo Méndez
Spain, Galicia
The Story
Bodegas y Viñedos Rodrigo Méndez is a small project that was launched in 2012 by Rodrigo Méndez that focuses on wines from the village of Meaño, in the heart of the Salnés valley where Rodrigo was born. Covering 2,5 ha, Rodrigo works with stainless tanks and 600 and 225-litre oak barrels. He produces very limited bottlings a year, following old school organic methods of winemaking and vineyard management. The difference between these wines and Rodrigo's Forjas del Salnés project is akin to Burgundian village wine. Cíes is a village in Meaño that carries the same name as Rodrigo's entry-level white and red wine.
Cíes perfectly combines maturity and freshness. It is intense, mineral, vibrant, complex and with a lingering sensation on the palate.
Sálvora is the "grand cru"; "it is the best vineyard we have" - the vines are 115 years old, and the soils are limestone-rich spread across a 3,000 sq meters site. Rodrigo also makes rare wines such as the As Covas Pinot Noir and the O Santo do Mar.
View WinesThe People
Rodrigo
Rodrigo Méndez was born and raised in Galicia and has spent his life collaborating with the likes of Raul Perez while working on his own projects. He aims to show Albariño in a different light, back to the time before adding selected yeast, cold fermentations, forced malolactic and corrected acidity, and vast amounts of sulphur to stainless steel became the norm.
Read more over in our Q&A series about Rodrigo's winemaking approach and learn about the sister project Forjas del Salnés.
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The Place
Galicia, Spain
Bodegas y Viñedos Rodrigo Mendez project is located in Meaño in the subzone Val do Salnes, the most north-western area of Rías Baixas.
His vineyards are not typical Galician vineyards: they are hidden up in the mountains surrounded by pine forests, overlooking the Atlantic coast (O Raio da Vella) and lower down close to the beach plot of Pinot Noir (As Covas), and on the other side of the fjord, close to the village of Bueu (O Santo do Mar), literally planted on the beach...
The vineyards are isolated, which means Rodrigo can farm using organic methods, and he does not have to worry about diseases or pesticides drifting in from neighbouring vineyards. He grows native Galician grape varieties and uses natural yeasts to ferment them.