Ailalá Souson Ribeiro 2022
£15.25
The wine
Souson is one of the rarer red grapes of north-west Spain, deeply coloured and naturally high in acidity, which suits the cool Atlantic climate of Ribeiro. Inma Pazos and Miguel Montoto make it as a fresh, floral red with black pepper lift and firm structure. A red for people who think Galicia only makes whites.
Souson is a native Galician red of deep colour and formidable acidity that had all but vanished before recent revival efforts. It is grown in tiny quantity and rarely bottled alone, which makes this genuinely unusual. Ribeiro's steep granite terraces are worked largely by hand.
The producer
Ailalá
View all Ailalá winesAilala is a small Ribeiro producer working the traditional grapes of inland Galicia. The name comes from a Galician folk refrain, the sort of nonsense syllable that carries a traditional song.
Ribeiro is Galicia's oldest wine region and was exporting to England in the fifteenth century, long before Rias Baixas existed as an appellation. It sits inland along the Avia and Mino rivers on steep granite terraces, and its decline through the twentieth century was severe: growers replaced native varieties with the high-yielding Palomino, and the region's reputation collapsed.
The recovery has been built on going back. Treixadura is the principal white, giving orchard fruit and texture rather than aromatics, and Souson is a native red of deep colour and formidable acidity that had all but vanished. Both are grown here in small quantity.
