Mar de Frades, the Albariño-specialising Rias Baixas sister to Rioja’s Ramón Bilbao, has appointed Enotria&Coe as its UK distributor with immediate effect.

Mar de Frades has been part of Spain’s family-owned Zamora Company since 2002. “As one of our strategic wine brands, Mar de Frades should be distributed by our strategic wine partners in key markets,” comments Robert Eastham, Wine & Spirits Director (West & North Europe) at Zamora Company. “The UK is a crucial market for Mar de Frades, and since our Ramón Bilbao wines joined Enotria&Coe in March last year they have seen a sales growth of 30% so this move is completely in line with our international strategy. We would like to say thank you to Cellar Trends, who previously imported the brand into the UK and with whom we continue to work with and enjoy excellent growth with Licor 43. We are confident that Enotria&Coe is perfectly positioned to build on our current listings for Mar de Frades with the On-Trade and Specialists here.”

Founded in 1987, Mar de Frades is one of Rias Baixas’ most adventurous, innovative producers, with its immediately recognisable blue bottles and thermochromic labels.  The range currently comprises Mar de Frades Albariño 2017 (RRP £20.00), the barrel-aged Mar de Frades Finca Valiñas Albariño 2014 (RRP £45.00) and the Mar de Frades Albariño Brut NV (RRP £30.00) - the world’s first ever sparkling Albariño when it was initially released in 2012.

“The perception of Albariño in the UK has come on leaps and bounds in recent years and is increasingly becoming a ‘must’ for wine lists in the premium On-Trade. Adventurous wine drinkers fall in love with this fresh, mineral, saline, fruity white from the cool and coastal region of Rias Baixas, Galicia. It is Spain’s most distinctive white wine, and it’s important that our range reflects this evolution and that we are leaders in the promotion of the region and its wines. With that, we see great potential for Mar de Frades,” says Harriet Kininmonth from Enotria&Coe. “It would difficult to find another producer in the area that really knows the Albariño grape inside out, and makes wines with the region’s hallmark grace.”

The Mar de Frades winery is located in Galicia’s Salnès Valley, at a spot on the Arousa Estuary - nicknamed ‘Sea of the Friars’, or ‘Mar de Frades’ - where pilgrims used to disembark from their maritime journey on their way to Santiago de Compostella. Winemaker Paula Fandiño joined in 2007, and is a self-confessed Albariño geek, always aiming to dig deep into her Finca Valiñas 6-hectare single vineyard, where vines are trained high to take advantage of the famous Atlantic breeze.  Recent vineyard purchases have been made further north in the Valley, and in the Ulla River Basin.