Sitta Pereiras Naturalmente Dulce 2024 500ml

A dry white wine whose tension comes from herbal spice, salt and stony minerality rather than fruit. At 13.0% vol. it stays lean, with a dense, precise structure.

The vineyard lies in the Val do Salnés, the heartland of Rías Baixas, at just 80 metres above sea level and trained in the classic pergola style. Granite, sand and clay form a well-drained base, and the proximity to the sea shapes the cool, saline style. Robustiano and Baldomero Fariña run the winery in the third generation; they carved their cellar into the granite rock.

Caiño Blanco, one of Galicia's rarest white grape varieties. For the Atalante it is fermented in 500-litre barrels of French origin and aged on the lees, with bâtonnage used to build complexity. Winemaker Jean-François Hébrard works alongside the brothers.

The nose is distinctly maritime and vegetal: white turnip, kohlrabi, young corn and fennel seed, overlaid with a blanket of coriander, chervil, lemon balm, lemon thyme, mint and eucalyptus. The fruit remains a counterpoint: quince, white pear, nashi pear, yellow plum. On the palate, a present but never loud acidity carries the wine, with saline and mineral elements driving the course, led by fennel and herbal spice. The finish feels ethereal and crystal clear, fine bitter notes lend contour, and the minerality lingers long.

With oysters and other seafood, with grilled sardines, Galician octopus and mussels. Also with smoked fish, green asparagus, grilled fish with fennel vegetables and Asian dishes featuring lemongrass.

Caiño Blanco is now only rarely grown in Galicia. That Attis ages the variety in large wood and on the lees without smoothing over its austerity gives the Atalante its shape: saline, stony and uncompromising in its fidelity to origin.