In Castrelo, in the heart of the Salnes Valley where Albarino was born, Constantina Sotelo makes some of the only truly natural wines in Rias Baixas, a lone voice in a region built on filtration and cultured yeast.
Backstory
Constantina's family has farmed and made wine in Rias Baixas for an estimated two hundred years. She launched her own project in 1999 with the support of the whole family, and began commercial production under her boutique label around 2010. Today she works alongside her husband, her sister, and her son David.
The Region
The micro-winery sits in Castrelo, part of Cambados in the Salnes Valley of Rias Baixas, Galicia, the area widely regarded as the cradle of Albarino. Although her bodega lies at the heart of the appellation, Constantina chooses to bottle outside the Rias Baixas DO, whose conservative rules require filtration or inoculation with commercial yeast.
Vineyards and Farming
Farming is fully organic. The family manages more than 35 small parcels and works almost entirely with the region's signature Albarino, vinified parcel by parcel.
Winemaking
The wines are made with no additions, fermented with native yeasts in a mix of stainless steel, old oak and chestnut barrels, clay jars, and demijohns. Some are made as skin-contact orange wines, some on whole bunches, all aiming for the most terroir-transparent expression possible.
The Wines
She produces over thirty single-parcel bottlings, including the Rosalia Albarino, the Aquelarre pet-nat, and skin-contact cuvees, each a portrait of an individual vineyard block in the Salnes.
