Salnes, in the heart of Galicia’s Rias Baixas region, has a tradition of using vineyard posts made from granite, the local rock. This, combined with the cool maritime climate, produces wines with crisp minerality and elegant fruit.
Salnes, in the heart of Galicia’s Rias Baixas region, has a tradition of using vineyard posts made from granite, the local rock. This, combined with the cool maritime climate, produces wines with crisp minerality and elegant fruit.
The Past
Each with 35 years experience in the wine trade; Kim in senior financial management of large Northern Californian Wineries (Beringer, Clos du Bois & Sterling/Seagram Classics); Robert in UK retail (Oddbins & Bibendum), then winery work in CA (Saintsbury, Murphy Goode& Peter Michael Winery) and Burgundy (Meo-Camuzet, Clos des Epeneaux & Roulot in Meursault).
Owned and operated Domaine du Poujol, Languedoc, France for 22 years. 10-15ha vineyard producing 40000 – 60000 bottles/year, 80% exported to 13 different countries. Produced without any outside consultants, technicians or enologists from the 2003 vintage when Poujol was first listed in the Revue de Vins des France’s classement guide book.
The Present
Granite Post is a marriage between Rias Baixas’ vineyards and expressive grape varieties and the expertise and imagination of an Anglo-American couple with many years’ experiences of making wine in California, Burgundy and the Languedoc before moving to Galicia. Our aim is to produce a singular expression of just two wines; an Albariño and a rosé.
The Albariño is primarily sourced from vineyards close to the sea in the Salnes district in the Denominacion de Origen Rias Baixas. Our belief is that Albariño from this area is capable of producing wines as complex and age-worthy as the wines that we were involved in making in Burgundy and California. To this end, we do employ techniques such as barrel fermentation, ageing on the lies, and occasionally, malolactic, but we strive to keep the minerality, freshness and elevated aromatic qualities of Albariño. Throughout our winemaking careers, we have always emphasized balance and finesse in our wines, and Granite Post is no exception.
Whilst Granite Post Albariño is our interpretation of a Galician classic, rosé is very much a new wine to the region. Drawing on our quarter of a century’s experience of rosé winemaking in France, it helps us to pioneer Rias Baixas rosé. Working with very different varieties – Caiño, Espadiero, and Mencia – we are discovering how to craft an expression of rosé that is unique to Rias Baixas and will in time become, we hope, a new Galician classic.
The Name
Although many areas use overhead trellising for vineyards, Salnes is unique in its use of posts cut from the local bedrock, granite, for trellising.
