In the Val Do Salnes, Manuel Moldes is crafting head-turning bottles of Albariño that are among the benchmarks coming out of current-day Rias Baixas. Moldes is always on the hunt for grapes from overlooked vineyards that he can aggregate into a coherent voice for an ascending region. His wines represent his love for gastronomy and are becoming more delicious each vintage.

Manuel Moldes

We’re in the midst of an Albarino revolution. Based in Val Do Salnés, Manuel Moldes has been instrumental for us as we think about exciting wines coming out of the Rias-Baixas. His approach to Albariño is to let each wine speak for itself and its terroir without attempting to manipulate each wine to fit an overarching identity that has been largely placed on the variety.

Manuel works a variety of sites and is additionally always on the hunt for abandoned or neglected vineyards from which he can make delicious and profound bottlings. He also belongs to a consortium of winemakers, sommeliers, and restaurateurs that meet at several different places in the region to discuss, drink, and eat.

For the most part, fermentation and aging takes place in old french oak barrels, ranging from 500 to 700 Liters, and the wines are bottled after 9 to 11 months. The wines are incisive, elegant, and incredibly food friendly. Each bottling is labeled by parcel and Manuel’s Afelio – composed of a group of small parcels around the Val Do Salnés – is among our first bottles to reach for during warm afternoons and nights.

What started as a project in 1998 by Savoie icon Michel Grisard (of Prieuré Saint Christophe) to reclaim abandoned vineyard slopes has become one of the most ambitious and quality-driven vineyards in the Alpine Region. The two vineyard sites, located in Cervins and St-Pierre de Saucy villages, were planted on steep rocky slopes, some with over 60% gradient. The grapes are farmed using organic and biodynamic practices and are hand-picked. The varieties that thrive in these extreme conditions are mainly native, with whites Altesse, Jacquere, Mondeuse Blanche, some Chardonnay, and reds Mondeuse, Persan, and Gamay.

Domaine des Ardoisieres

In the winery, Champagne-native winemaker Brice Ormont uses native yeast fermentation, gentle whole-cluster pressing, a light touch of sulfur additions (only 1 gram at bottling), and a light filtration to create wines that convey the purity and elegance of the Savoie region. As a result, these wines speak ‘terroir’ arguably better than anywhere else in the world.

The Argile Blanc showcases pinpoint precision with taught, mouthwatering acid. The purity of the fruit shines. From front to finish, the wine displays clean, pure minerality on the palate that almost feels…vibrating—a wine suited to serve as a palate cleanser for dishes of elegance and restraint, like Nigiri.

Argile Rouge appears at first raw, with pine, barnyard funk, and earthy components. On the palate, the wine displayed an elegance and ‘lift,’ with an almost ‘crunchy’ nature of black and blue berries—a potentially great complement to grilled mushroom and truffle dishes. I'm not typically into "natty" wines, with those sorts of aromatic qualities, but this is a gorgeous exception to the rule.

Silice Rouge is a bit “cleaner” stylistically compared to Argile, showing more herbal and medicinal notes and less funk on the nose. While the fruit is not as ‘high-toned,’ this wine is still incredibly acid and mineral-driven. While fruit is in no way absent, it takes a backseat to the savory qualities of this wine.

High above Jumilla, in the most remote part of Jumilla is Fuente-Alamo, where brothers Juan, Carlos and sister Lucia call their home "Bodega Cerron". Now in its fourth generation, the trio have simultaneously honored their family's traditional methods while improving the levels of quality to an otherworldly level. "Terroir" being "sense of place" has never felt more true or belonging to a wine label.

Bodega Cerron (Stratum Wines)

Don't miss Luis Gutierrez's February 2026 Wine Advocate Report on Bodega Cerron (Stratum Wines)!

"If you want a future, you must go out from here."
We are always taught to respect your elders, and in Jumilla it is no different; when given that lesson early in life by their grandfather, Juan and Carlos Cerdan respected the point that was being made. In their early years of life in Fuente-Alamo, the highest-elevation and most remote part of Jumilla, anyone would have understood the sentiment. The town consisted of less than one thousand residents, and in reality was only built to house the farmers of the land. Grapes were all that seemed to exist here, as it was too cold, too windy and the soils too chalky for almonds or olives. Those grapes produced wine that would bring joy, but also a source of trade for other goods like rice and fruits that wouldn't grow at the altitude. Juan instructs that once there were 70 wineries in the village, and everyone within employed by one or the other - even the kids. Maybe especially the kids.

"The fields were punishment for us," Juan admits; "No holidays, no weekends. My grandparents and parents' generation, they would work from dark to dark in the fields." Of course you had to get out of there - and for decades, almost everyone else did.

With the Spanish Civil war in the mid-1930s, most of Fuente-Alamo's residents deserted the town, fleeing to France or other countries to hide. In 1954, the brothers instruct us, a new economy was installed, and the bulk wine movement was born - more volume meant more money, and there was money in distillates, too. Through that lens, it makes even less sense that the Cerdan family stayed.

Jumilla is what is known as a pre-desert, and is home to extreme weather conditions- this is no beachfront, no balmy Mediterranean climate; drought is not a concept but a lifestyle. "There are many Jumillas in Jumilla," said Carlos, and this was not the sweeter, dark-berried wines that many came to know throughout the world. But now four generations of his family had now lived in Fuente-Alamo, and with age - like fine wine - the boys came into their own knowledge and understanding of just why.

"Today," says Juan, "The winery is our psychotherapy." Between the two boys and their sister Lucia, Juan says, "The three of us are in the same direction, and have the same, shared ideas. " What they came to realize as the town shrank - 70 wineries became 4, and 2 of those are just for bulk wine - was how special these old, wrought bush vines and their vineyards truly were. Limestone in its purest, most active form colors the soils a bright white; "We chuckle when the French come to visit - they say it's like going to the moon!" At 870-980m altitude, the thin soils above the limestone consists of sands resembling a Caribbean beach, and some greenish clay. Yet it changes so much with every step that they have isolated between 160-170 plots, averaging less than half a hectare each.

By now, you're thinking these boys have lost it, and should have listened to granddad. "We're hippies, everyone thinks, but it's true," says Juan; he uses the word "heterogenous" several times, and it fits as well as it rolls off his tongue in his perfect, accented English. "Ultimately, it's just fermented juice inside a bottle," he says, genuinely humble. And one must be - these plots are entirely un-grafted, un-irrigated, and low-yielding. Nobody had much luck getting Monastrell (a.k.a. Mourvedre), their chief varietal, ripe in Fuente-Alamo, but whether through luck or knowledge, their parents had given up on chemicals and let the vines grow entirely organically 25 years ago, and the grape thrives in the family's style - crunchy dark fruits, chalky tannins, bright acidity but balanced and energetic.

Beyond the Monastrell, which makes up most of the plantings, Carlos and Juan have the oldest Grenache Noir plantings in all of Jumilla - most had been ripped out in favor of Alicante Bouchet, owing to its much darker hue being more desirable for bulk wine. The white varietal Airen was another grape largely ripped-out by their predecessors. In fact, the government provided funding to replant with more "desirable" grape varieties, as Airen was deemed to only be good for production of distillates. The family preserved half a hectare, making it an extreme rarity in Jumilla as a while, and it produces one of their most sought-after wines, Cerrico. Several other field-blended varietals are interspersed, some of which the family still is unsure of the origin.

In 2025, the trio enter their tenth vintage in charge of Bodega Cerron, to which they have added the name "Stratum Wines", in homage to the wild strata within their soils. Carlos admits that their wines evolve as their own tastes do, albeit only in gradual amounts. He and Juan travel routinely to other wine regions, particularly fascinated with the Rhone and Piedmont - Rhone at first to see what Mourvedre could become there, Piedmont later to experience other regions that likewise craft wines in a true, traditional way. Returning home to Fuente-Alamo, they are instilled with even greater passion for their own project, and those of like mind. With so much climate change around our wine world, it's a shame we collectively have taken so long to discover this version of Jumilla; it's been waiting, and only improving daily as the Cerdan family toils away in their labor of love. They didn't "go out" from there; as Carlos declares, "The people behind the terroir are the most important part of the terroir."

Viticulture & Vinification

The wines are delineated similarly to the classic ranking system - Matas Altas as the "village" level wines; Servil & Los Yesares as the "Premier Cru" and Calera & Cerrico as their "Grand Crus". All wines undergo largely the same vinification, but are separated based on their particular plot and unique character. Harvests are late, into October, allowing for full ripeness. The local clones of Monastrell produce tighter clusters that could be subject to rot in a more humid climate, but with the steady winds barreling through the vineyards, disease pressure is not generally a concern.

As of 2011, all viticulture is biodynamic, and was organic from 1989-1990 forward. Calera was abandoned for 10-15 years and was revitalized by the biodynamic treatments enough to produce its first 200L in the 2016 vintage. The brothers say it will continue to recover for another 5-10 years before reaching its apex, but believe even further in the power of the biodynamics after that revitalization.

Perhaps the greatest difference between the generations is not the style, but the dedication to holding wine until it is ready. "My grandfather would sell everything within the year before the next harvest, just due to space - you had to make room. The style perhaps is not so different - the first time we gave our wine to him, he told us, 'You didn't invent anything; this is just like we used to do.' It was impossible to buy new oak, so they would use whatever they could buy for cheap, or make."

There is no temperature-controlled fermentation here - not needed in the cold winters. Fermentations will begin spontaneously in large oak, concrete and terra cotta vessels as it has been for generations. No sulfur is added until bottling, following the biodynamic protocols. With regard to aging, the former generations would age a maximum of 12 months, but the brothers favor 20-22 months, with an eye to increasing some of the cuvees to 30-36 months. There is a great connection and respect to the Italian style of aging, especially in not killing the grapes' character with small barrels.