The Blacksmith's Grandson, the Albariño Archaeologist & the Red Wine Heresy
A fifth-generation Galician whose grandfather founded the Rías Baixas DO and whose first wine came from a 115-year-old family vineyard — Rodrigo Méndez makes over 15 single-vineyard Albariños from granite, sand and Atlantic clay, while quietly reviving the nearly extinct red grapes his grandfather tried to save: Caiño, Espadeiro, Loureiro and Brancellao.
Origin — The Forge, the DO, and the Grandfather's Shadow
Rodrigo Méndez — Rodri, to everyone who knows him — was born in Meaño, in the heart of the Val do Salnés, the most coastal and historically significant subzone of Rías Baixas. He is the fifth generation of a family that has made wine in Galicia for over three centuries. His great-great-grandparents made wine. His great-grandparents made wine. His parents made wine. And his grandfather, Francisco Méndez, was a blacksmith who also happened to be instrumental in founding the Rías Baixas DO in 1988.
The name Forjas del Salnés — forjas means forges — is a direct nod to Francisco's trade. The winery logo carries the hammer and anvil. But the forge was not the only inheritance. When Francisco died in 2001, Rodri found himself at 23 with a collection of ancient family vineyards, a deep memory of walking those vines from age 12, and no mentor to guide him. "The person with the most influence on me was my grandfather," he says. The first wine he ever drank came from Sálvora, the family monopole in the centre of Meaño — a vineyard so old that in a photograph from 1920, the vines already looked ancient.
Rodri's path was not straight. He spent formative years playing professional indoor soccer before the family gravity pulled him back. He learned not in oenology school but in the vineyards, through hands-on experience and family ties. A series of collaborations with other Galician winemakers — most notably Raúl Pérez — taught him to make red wines with the local varieties his grandfather had championed, and together they produced Sketch, the famous underwater-aged Albariño that became a global sensation. In 2005, Rodri founded Forjas del Salnés. In 2011, he launched a second, more personal project under his own name: Bodegas y Viñedos Rodrigo Méndez.
The Place — Three Zones, One Valley, One Ocean
The Val do Salnés is the coolest, most fertile, and most Albariño-dense subzone of Rías Baixas — a green, rolling landscape tucked into Spain's northwest corner, hugging the Atlantic. Rodri farms roughly 12 hectares across three distinct zones, each with its own soil signature, and has become the region's undisputed expert on Salnés geology.
The Coast — White Clay and Sand
Close to the ocean, the soils are white clay and sand with low pH, contributing volume and powdery minerality. These vineyards have old vines averaging 40 years, trained in the traditional parral (pergola) system for airflow in the damp climate. Wines from here are saline, broad, and immediately Atlantic.
The Valley — Granite and Sábrego
Further inland, the granite decomposes into sábrego — a fine, clay-like sand that "passes through your hands as if it were clay." This is where the most ancient vineyards live, some 150 to 200 years old, including Finca Genoveva and Sálvora. The wines are concentrated, vertical, and high in acidity.
The Mountains — Poor, Rocky, Young
In the mountainous zone of Salnés — once accessible only by donkey — the vines are the youngest at 10–15 years, planted on poor, rocky soils at higher elevation. Rodri believes this area will be famous in two decades. The wines are wiry, muscular, and tense.
Quartz, Gneiss, and Dune Sand
Throughout all three zones, Rodri has discovered significant quartz mixed with granite and clay. In special sites he has found dune sand (áreas) and even gneiss — a hybrid of slate and granite that behaves like neither. He maps every parcel by soil type and vinifies them separately.
Winemaking — Old School, Indigenous, Age-Worthy
Rodri's cellar philosophy is a deliberate rejection of the modern Albariño template. No selected yeasts. No cold fermentations. No forced malolactic. No corrected acidity. No vast amounts of sulfur. Instead: indigenous yeasts, fermentation in wooden vats without temperature control, extended lees contact without bâtonnage, and aging in large neutral vessels — foudres, oval barrels, and chestnut vats — that allow natural movement without racking.
All white wines see significant lees contact, with no malolactic fermentation, and only minimal sulfur at bottling. The reds are fresh and elegant, with livelier floral and fruit aromas, thanks to slow élevage in large used barrels. Rodri's embrace of historic techniques — skin contact, foot-treading, extended lees aging — matches his passion for ancient vineyards. He is not trying to innovate; he is trying to remember.
His approach to oak was inspired by Doña Lola, the 90-year-old owner of Finca Genoveva, where 200+ year-old Albariño and Caiño vines produced wines that were "still perfect after decades." Rodri now uses her parents' hand-built chestnut vats for fermentation. The goal is not aroma but longevity: wines that can age for decades, that never disguise their terroir with showy fruit.
The Wines — From Village to Grand Cru, White to Red
Rodri produces around 20 different wines across two labels — Forjas del Salnés for the broader Salnés region, and Rodrigo Méndez for his home village of Meaño. 70% of production is single-vineyard. The range moves from stainless-steel village wines to foot-trodden skin-contact Albariños to 200-year-old-vine reds.
Leirana
Flagship Albariño — Val do SalnésThe calling card — 100% Albariño from vines planted 1952–1982 on sandy and granitic soils. 90% stainless steel, 10% old oak. No malolactic. Vibrant, salty, and precise with pear, citrus zest, and crushed mineral. Around 40,000–60,000 bottles. The only wine in the range fermented in steel.
Leirana Finca Genoveva
Single-vineyard AlbariñoFrom the vineyard that changed everything — 150–200 year-old Albariño and Caiño vines on granite, owned by Doña Lola. Fermented in her parents' hand-built chestnut vats. The image of what Salnés looked like 100 years ago. Nutty, textured, and built for decades.
Cos Pes
Skin-contact Albariño"With the feet" — Albariño from 70+ year-old vines, fermented whole-cluster on skins and trodden by foot (smaller people and children only, Rodri specifies). Two months of skin contact. Textured, grippy, and expressive — an Albariño made like a red wine. ~1,200 bottles.
Goliardo Tinto
Red blend — SalnésNamed for wine-loving medieval scholars — a blend of Caiño, Espadeiro, Loureiro Tinto and Sousón. Light extraction, Burgundian sensibility, fresh and elegant with lively floral and red fruit aromas. The flagship red that proved Salnés could do more than Albariño.
Goliardo Caiño Tintos de Mar
Single-varietal red100% Caiño from 180–200 year-old vines, 30% whole cluster, aged in second-use barrels. Juicy, pure, peppery, and vivid — the most exciting red wine in the range. A variety that was nearly extinct, saved by Rodri's grandfather and now championed by his grandson.
Sálvora
Single-vineyard Albariño — MeañoUnder the Rodrigo Méndez label — from the family monopole in the centre of Meaño, vines so old that a 1920 photograph shows them already ancient. Two barrels a year. Each vintage unique. Named for the island off the Salnés coast. The wine that started it all.
Legacy — The Golden Age, Remembered
Rodrigo Méndez matters because he is not merely making wine; he is reconstructing a golden age. The mid-20th century was the high point of Albariño — before selected yeasts, before stainless steel, before the DO industrialised. Rodri's entire project is an archaeology of that moment: using the techniques his ancestors used, farming the vineyards his grandfather saved, and making wines that can age as those wines aged.
His legacy is threefold. First, the Albariño of terroir: by mapping Salnés by soil type — white clay, sand, granite, sábrego, quartz, gneiss — and vinifying each separately, he has proven that Albariño is not a monolith but a prism. Second, the red wine revival: in a region that had all but abandoned its indigenous reds, Rodri has made Caiño, Espadeiro, and Loureiro Tinto into wines that compete with Mencía and Pinot Noir for elegance. Third, the age-worthy white: by refusing malolactic, using large neutral wood, and extending lees contact, he has shown that Albariño can mature for decades — a heresy in a region that prizes youth.
Through his collaboration with Raúl Pérez — on Sketch, on Castro Candaz in Ribeira Sacra, on El Barredo Pinot Noir in Bierzo — Rodri has also become a node in the network of New Spanish Wine, connecting Galicia to Bierzo to Ribera Sacra. But his heart remains in Meaño, in the forge, in the 115-year-old vineyard where his grandfather taught him to prune. "I learned by doing just how to be a Méndez," he says. "Now I show the world what it means to be one."