The Flower and the Bee: review of a Spanish white wine as salty as the ocean
The Flower and the Bee is a pleasant, fresh wine that is at times aromatic and endowed with ravenous drinkability. It is a simple wine with consistent fruit but is balanced, thanks to the oceanic breezes and marl soils that give depth and minerality.
Ricardo Carreiro owns and operates the Coto de Gomariz, which produces this Spanish wine from the DO Ribeira. A winemaker who has converted to biodynamics in recent years and whose production, on a human scale, focuses on the tremendous indigenous grape varieties of Galicia. Treixadura, Albario, Godello, and Loureira
The wines are savory and intense, with slenderness and great finesse; however, there is a certain underlying purity capable of highlighting the qualities of these splendid vines.
In this case, The Flower and the Bee wine is based on Treixadura, a Galician white grape variety that is very common in the Atlantic area and is also used generously in Portugal for the production of Vinho Verde.
It has characteristics similar to Malvasia, but its aromaticity is less overbearing and focuses more on the fruit and delicate herbs and not so much on musky or honey scents.
Organoleptic characteristics
But let’s get to the wine in the glass. How is it produced? Harvested by hand, pressed, and then fermented in steel without adding yeasts. The result is an all-juice wine that manages to distill the salty power of the ocean.
On the nose, the name says it all: a lot of flowers mixed with honey, then white pulpy fruit, and a touch of herbs. In the background, the salt and the rocks
The concentration never expires in aromatic aggression, is not unbalanced, and remains elegant.
It is light, fresh, easy to drink, and has a sharp, savory rhythm, but it doesn’t try to be very deep. It does its job flawlessly and precisely: good balance and flowing pleasantness.
Price
Ten euros: you can’t ask for more from a biodynamic wine that is precise and well made, excellent for the everyday table.
Food Pairings
Seafood dishes, from appetizers to first courses with clams and sea urchins, spaghetti with seafood, parmigiana ravioli, spaghetti with clams, chicken tikka masala, Chicken Cacciatore, Vitello Tonnato, truffle risotto, pasta alla carbonara.
