From the atlas
Bodegas Zarate
At A Glance
Producer: Bodegas Zarate Village/Appellation: Meaño, Val do Salnés, Rías Baixas DO Country: Spain Grape: Albariño Estate: 9.6 hectares across 12 or more parcels in the Sisán and Padrenda parishes Founded: 1707 Current Generation: Eulogio Pomares, seventh generation, managing since the 2000 vintage
The Producer
Zarate farms nine and a half hectares of Albariño from a 16th-century stone pazo in Meaño, a village inside Val do Salnés, the Atlantic subzone of Rías Baixas where granite soils and ocean air shape the grape's clearest expression. The family has held these parcels across seven generations. The current winemaker, Eulogio Pomares, inherited a going concern and turned it into something more deliberate: a three-tiered range in which the same Albariño grape, grown on the same granitic ground, produces wines of measurably different weight, lees depth, and cellaring horizon depending on which parcel it came from and how long it rested in the cellar.
The oldest vines on the estate date to around 1850. Those vines, in the El Palomar parcel, predate phylloxera and remain ungrafted. A second tier of ungrafted vines in the Balado parcels dates to 1950. The entry-level Albariño draws from multiple parcels with vines averaging 35 to 40 years old. Vine age in this range is not decoration: it directly determines the fermentation and ageing treatment each wine receives and the amount of time it spends on its lees before release.
Place
Rías Baixas is the green, wet, Atlantic-facing corner of Galicia, in northwest Spain, where the coastline breaks into river estuaries and the climate is cooler and wetter than almost anywhere else in the country. Val do Salnés is the northernmost and most prominent subzone within the appellation, centred on Cambados and running south through Meaño. Granite is the underlying geology. Atlantic winds keep temperatures from climbing. The combination produces Albariño with high natural acidity, concentrated citrus and stone-fruit aroma, and enough freshness to hold without added acidity.
Within Val do Salnés, Zarate's parcels in Sisán and Padrenda sit on granite soils that vary in depth from parcel to parcel. In the Balado vineyard, only 40 to 60 centimetres of topsoil separate the vines from solid bedrock. That shallow root zone concentrates the fruit and, together with blocked malolactic fermentation, keeps the wine taut and mineral rather than round. In El Palomar, the soil and vine age push fermentation in a different direction: slow, in oak vats, with a long lees rest that adds weight and length without adding oak flavour.
Soil And Site
All of Zarate's parcels sit on granite. The mineral character common across the range traces to this single bedrock, though its expression changes with the depth of topsoil above it. In the Balado vineyard, the thin granite skin forces roots deep and limits yields. The resulting wine carries a chiselled, mineral quality that demands time in bottle before it softens. In El Palomar, the pre-phylloxera vines are on old, ungrafted root systems that have been navigating the same granite for over 150 years. Vineyard soils across all parcels have not been tilled since 1994, which has allowed native flora to return and, over three decades, established a more complex soil ecosystem than mechanical cultivation would permit.
Story
Diego Zárate y Murga founded the estate in 1707. For most of its history it functioned as a working Galician wine property: family-held, local in orientation, farming what the land gave. The generational shift that changed its direction came in the mid-20th century, when Ernesto Zárate moved the estate toward quality production at a time when Rías Baixas had little international profile and Albariño was largely a local grape.
Eulogio Pomares took the estate's direction further when he assumed responsibility for vinification at the 2000 vintage. He formalised the no-tillage commitment that had begun in 1994, eliminating insecticides entirely and switching farming to phytotherapy, sulfur, and copper treatments only. He also began separating the estate's parcels into distinct bottlings rather than blending everything into a single wine. The three-tier range, in which El Palomar and Balado sit above the entry Albariño, followed from that decision. Each wine now records a specific parcel, a specific vine age, and a specific lees duration, making the range a kind of slow-motion study in what granite and Albariño do when left to develop at different speeds.
Vineyards And Cellar
Farming across Sisán and Padrenda is done without tillage and without insecticides. Vine treatments use phytotherapy, sulfur, and copper. The soil, undisturbed since 1994, has recovered its native ground cover, which reduces compaction and supports soil biology that Eulogio Pomares credits with vineyard health over the long run.
In the cellar, lees contact is the primary tool. The base Albariño rests on its lees for three months before release, a short contact that lifts texture without adding weight. Balado extends that contact to six months and adds the constraint of blocked malolactic fermentation, keeping the wine's acidity intact and its mineral line sharp. El Palomar goes further still: fermented in large oak vats, not for any wood character but because the vessel allows a slower, more reductive process than stainless steel, the wine then spends 30 months on its lees without batônnage and without malolactic fermentation. It is a white wine built for the cellar in the same sense that a good Burgundy is: it closes down in youth and opens at three to five years or beyond.
Wines
The range runs three deep, all Albariño, and each bottle reflects a different combination of vine age, lees time, and fermentation vessel.
Zarate Albariño is the entry wine. Fermented in stainless steel, rested on lees for three months, then released with the fresh citrus and white fruit character of young Albariño from Atlantic granite. Bright acidity, light body, clean finish. A wine for the table rather than the cellar.
Zarate Balado Albariño comes from two parcels with ungrafted vines planted in 1950, sitting over granite bedrock with minimal topsoil. Malolactic fermentation is blocked during vinification, keeping acidity high and the flavour profile lean and mineral. Extended lees contact adds weight without roundness. The wine is taut when young, stony, and needs time to integrate. Balado receives six months on its lees, compared with three months for the entry Albariño.
Zarate El Palomar Albariño is the estate's most ambitious expression. Pre-phylloxera ungrafted vines planted around 1850 produce small crops of concentrated fruit. Fermentation happens in old oak vats, a choice that slows the process and allows gradual, low-oxygen contact across the must. The wine then rests on its lees for 30 months without stirring and without malolactic conversion. It emerges with a richer mid-palate than the other two, a longer finish, and a saline, waxy texture that sets it apart from any other Albariño at standard lees contact. The oak vats leave no wood flavour: the wine reads as mineral and taut, not toasted.
In The Glass
The base Albariño opens with lime zest, white peach, and a faint saline note. On the palate, bright acidity carries the fruit cleanly through to a short, fresh finish. There is no weight here, no development ambition. It is an honest, immediate Atlantic white.
Balado is the most mineral driven and structured expression in the range. It is taut and often requires bottle age to develop fully. Acidity is firm and high, the palate is compressed, and the finish lingers with a chalky mineral quality. Given a year or two in bottle, the wine softens at the edges without losing its backbone.
El Palomar is richer and more structured than the base wine, with a saline, waxy texture and granite mineral character. The mouth is broader, with a rich mid-palate that builds slowly and a finish that carries saline length. Despite the 30 months on lees, it is not heavy. The long lees rest has added depth, not sugar weight. At three or four years from vintage, it is fully itself.
A Bottle To Understand It
El Palomar is the bottle to seek. It is a single-vineyard Albariño from vines planted around 1850, ungrafted and pre-phylloxera, fermented in old oak vats and aged on lees for 30 months without stirring or malolactic conversion. On the nose it is richer and more layered than the other two wines: dried citrus peel, beeswax, almond, and a deep saline mineral quality that comes from the grape, the granite, and the time. On the palate, the texture is broader and rounder than Balado but still built around acidity rather than fruit weight. The finish is long and clean. No oak flavour, no softness from butter or cream, nothing that reads as manipulated. El Palomar is what Albariño does when the vines are old enough, the cellar patient enough, and the winemaker confident enough to leave it alone.
Anecdote
Ernesto Zárate won first prize at the Albariño Festival in 1954, 1955, and 1956, three consecutive years. After the third win, Ernesto Zárate withdrew from the competition entirely. He submitted no further entries, offered no public explanation, and returned to farming. The festival continued without him. The three-year record stood. The Zárate bottles still carry his name.
Final Word
Zarate is a Val do Salnés estate with more than three centuries of continuous operation, a no-tillage commitment now in its fourth decade, and a range of three Albariños that shows what vine age and lees contact do when applied systematically to the same granite ground. El Palomar, from 1850 vines rested for 30 months, is the bottle that repays patience. Balado, from 1950 granite-bedrock parcels with blocked malolactic, is the wine for those who want mineral Albariño with genuine depth. The base wine is the right starting point at the table. Together they show that Rías Baixas produces wines with more than one register.
Sources
- https://www.zarate.es/
- https://doriasbaixas.com/en/bodega/eulogio-pomares-zarate-e-hijos-e-hijos-s-l/
- https://spanishwinelover.com/winerie/zarate
- https://www.polanerselections.com/producers/zarate/
- https://www.vino-vi.com/en/white-wine/3201-zarate-albarino-2024.html