Eladio Pineiro is one of the wine world’s great personalities and innovators. It is not often that one encounters a producer who truly re-invents a genre, but that is what he has done with his unique approach to lees-aging. A very recent visit also found him experimenting with aging a wine in the sea (a truly remarkable outcome there) and, after six years of experimentation, producing a sparkling Albariño by the ancestral method that would frankly put many a champagne to shame. Both of these original conceptions are now available for your discovery. The irrepressible Eladio is also the only producer we have met who employs not one but two full-time artists on his staff. The first, Daniel, is a talented cartoonist whose creations emblazon every new wine (including an annually changing label for Envidiacochina that is designed to track developments in the life of Eladio and his wife – some of which would be considered too racy in the U.S.A.). Daniel also designs all the packaging and publicity material, as well as serving as Eladio’s English interpreter. Eladio was one of the founders of large scale Albariño production in Spain with Mar de Frades in 1983, but left it all behind when his wife fell ill in 2003, selling the winery and keeping only a few prized vineyards. Now he dedicates himself to making artisanal hand-crafted Albariño (also hand-bottled and hand labeled….you get the drift) in the prime vineyard area of the Salnés Valley. Additionally, and most unusually, they make red wine in Portugal’s Alentejo, where they have a second home. Eladio also commissioned the unique and patented bottle shapes. Everything is bio-dynamic and the wines are as original as they sound. Don't miss them, and don't wait - total production is about 5,000 cases.