Fulcru
'Finca A Cesteira' Albarino
Rias Baixas
2020

The producer

Manuel Moldes – who goes by the nickname of “Chicho” - left his job as an economist in the local bank, to follow his winemaking dreams, and in 2009 launched Bodegas Fulcro, in the Val do Salnes part of Rias Baixas. Originally Chicho started making wine in his grandfather’s garage – he is thus often referred to as a “garagiste” – and today has 3 hectares spread over 22 vineyard plots. All vineyards are farmed organically without the use of chemicals, and the wines ferment with indigenous yeast and are finally maturateed in old neutral vessels. Fulcro makes an impressive range of pure and terroir reflective wines from which we currently list the relatively new addition, the Albarino ‘A Cesteira’.

The wine

Fulcro’s ‘A Cesteira’ Albarino is made form a 0.5 hectare plot of 30-60 year old pergola trained vines planted in sandy schist soils in Meano, Val do Salnes. Fermentation is carried out with wild yeast and is followed by up to 20 months ageing in stainless steel tanks and finally 2 months in large neutral oak casks.

A Cesteira is a full-bodied and densely textured Albarino with pear and greengage fruit concentration, salty saline minerality, and vibrant freshness; the finish is long firm and steely. Production is tiny with only a couple of thousand bottles made of each vintage.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.