Fulcro A Cesteira Albarino

Bodegas Fulcro is a boutique, terroir-focused winery in the Val do Salnés area of Rías Baixas in Galicia, Spain, founded in 2009 by Manuel “Chicho” Moldes as a passion project that has since grown quietly into one of the region’s most respected small producers. Working primarily with Albariño on old vines planted in granitic and sandy soils near the Atlantic coast, the estate emphasises low-intervention viticulture, hand harvesting, natural fermentations and thoughtful use of vessel types to let the cultivar and site speak clearly in the glass.

Fulcro’s vineyards span small parcels around Meaño, Sanxenxo and Cambados, and the wines are known for their vibrant acidity, mineral clarity and coastal salinity that reflect both the maritime climate and the rugged Galician terroir. 

A Cesteira is the house's most singular expression: a micro-cuvée sourced from a single 0.7-hectare parcel in Villalonga on decomposed schist, with vines averaging around 60 years of age. The plot originally belonged to a family of cesteiros, or basket-weavers. Fruit is whole-cluster pressed and fermented spontaneously, skips malolactic conversion entirely, and is raised for around 11 months on lees in neutral 2,500-litre French oak foudres, with only a few hundred cases produced each vintage. The result is a taut, saline Albariño with real depth. It's herbal, fresh-cut nose alongside white fruit that reads as saline and precise, with a nervy, intense yet delicate palate carrying a persistent thread of salinity. It's Fulcro at its most site-specific: a wine that trades volume for singular expression of one small, old parcel of schist above the Atlantic.