2022 Bodegas Fulcro "A Pedreira"

There’s a rising tide of the territorial wines of Rías Baixas. Superior ones. More ambitious. Inviting to a whole lot more of everything.
And Bodegas Fulcro is surely signing under on this progressive wave of bliss and happy drinking of Galician wine culture.

In the top of one of the oldest areas of Rias Baixas with vine, right in front of the Atlantic Ocean, is where Bodegas Fulcro is to be found. Everything started off as a passionate hobby project of father and son, making wines for own consumption for the family. Fast forward a few years and the son Manuel Moldes, or ‘Chico’ as everyone is calling him, had left his job at the bank to focus full-time on wine. In 2009 he took his drive on making wines to the next chapter, decided to bring their garage project (literally) and establish the wines of the bodega to a broader audience. Today he is a full-fledged grower and wine maker. Many years and trials, and a little guidance of good friend Rodri Mendez, has put Bodegas Fulcro as one of the names to forever bear in mind.

Bodegas Fulcro is a true garage winery, both in scale and spirit.
Chico is remaining faithful to family traditions but with personal style of total respect for the environment. The winery is situated in Pontevedra and the vineyards border the coast in vicinity of Sanxeno and Meaño in the sub-region of Val do Salnés.

The climate in Salnés is mild throughout the seasons but can be extremely saturated. To avoid mildew all of the vines are pergola planted. Nature is left to do its magic in the vineyards and the parcels are worked by hand. The fundament is minimum intervention and maximum expression of the land. The vineyards are on granite and schist bedrock with topsoil of the decomposed bedrock, varying in grain size from talc- like sands to loamy mixtures of clay and sand. Manuel’s approach to his Albariño range is to maintain notably singular characteristics, all influenced by the bedrock and topsoil rather than the work in the cellar.

Grown within the eyeshot of the Atlantic the wines are not leaning on being some simple seaside gulp. Being granite-built its wines of confidence and sizzling minerality, the nerve of costal Albariño always being present but with a far more prime depth and energy.

A Pedreira is medium-bodied, deliciously snappy, and lightly creamy with a hint of tannin, this is Albariño perfection, a resolutely classic wine that sommeliers should be able to successfully blind 9/10 times. It is focused and nervy and will certainly age nicely over the next 2-3 years, but then again, why wait?