Eulogio "Locho" Pomares is known throughout Galicia as the "Albarino Whisperer." After tasting his 2024 Fento Albarino last week, I think that title is well-deserved. This is gorgeous, golden-hued, beautifully aromatic Albarino that has a presence about it. That should come as no surprise, as Eulogio knows "a bit" about making top-flight Albarino.
He is the 7th generation of his family to grow grapes and make wines at Bodegas Zarate, one of the top Albarino producers in the region. Fento is his little "side hustle," where he focuses entirely on Albarino grown within the more inland, warmer, and drier Condado do Tea subzone of Rias Baixas.
The warmer and drier aspect found in Condado do Tea leads to wines with more weight, body, and ripeness, and that's exactly what you get here. Despites its fuller personality, it maintains lovely freshness, brisk acidity, and complex minerality.
2024 Fento Albarino -- Why Should You Buy It?
- It's a sensational summer white! Bursting with rich yet zesty notes of white peach, nectarine, tangerine, honeysuckle, and rocky minerality, it's an irresistible white to enjoy on a hot and sunny day.
- This would fare very well in a blind tasting against pricier Albarinos, including Pomares' own Zarate. Whether you're a longtime Albarino lover or want to taste it in peak form, Fento is the wine for you.
- Pomares makes the wine with minimal intervention to showcase varietal and terroir character. All of the grapes are hand-harvested, native yeasts are employed for fermentation in stainless steel, the wine sees 6 months of lees aging, and minimal sulfites are added just before bottling.
- Albarino loves seafood and sunny days! What grows together goes together is one of my favorite wine and food pairing notions, and the vineyards that produce this wine are located very close to the Atlantic Ocean. Enjoy this with shrimp, crab cakes, or pretty much any other product of the sea.
I have a feeling it's going to be a hot summer, and wines like Fento's Albarino not only make it tolerable, they make it joyful. Grill some shrimp and vegetables, pull the cork on a nicely chilled bottle of this, and enjoy life to the fullest.
