Fulcro
Albariño with Depth: Fulcro wines are layered, mineral, and age-worthy, Albariño reimagined through patience and precision.
Manuel “Chicho” Moldes: An under-the-radar talent and rising star of Rías Baixas, Chicho brings deep experience and vision to his small-production project.
Granite and Atlantic: Old vines on granitic soils near the sea give the wines their signature tension, salinity, and subtle complexity.
Minimalist Winemaking: Native yeasts, long lees aging, used barrels. Chicho lets each parcel speak with clarity and restraint.
Fulcro – Albariño with Precision and Patience
In the cool, windswept hills of Rías Baixas, far from the commercial bustle of mainstream Albariño, Manuel Moldes, known to friends and followers simply as Chicho, is crafting wines of rare restraint, structure, and soul. His label, Fulcro, meaning "fulcrum" or "pivot point," feels fitting: these wines stand delicately balanced between tradition and modernity, between the wild Atlantic and the granite-rich slopes of Salnés.
Chicho began Fulcro in 2011, after years of quietly working as a consulting enologist in the region. With Fulcro, he stepped out on his own to explore a personal vision of Albariño, one that is savory, mineral, and built to evolve with time. Today, he farms 11 hectares of vines across old-vine parcels in Castrelo and other villages in the Val do Salnés, producing around 30,000 bottles annually. From the outset, he has farmed organically, with a deep sensitivity to site and a focus on vineyard expression.
The plots he works with are small, fragmented, and dramatic. Granite soils dominate, lending the wines their signature salinity and cut. Chicho is meticulous in the vineyard and hands-off in the cellar. Fermentations are spontaneous, often in used barrels or foudres, and aging is long, typically a year or more on the lees, with minimal stirring, no additions, and no rush.
His flagship wine, A Pedreira, offers crystalline precision and oceanic freshness, channeling the granite-rich soils and salty air of Salnés. Beyond that, top cuvées like O Equilibrio and site-specific bottlings push Albariño into more layered, age-worthy territory, textured, herbal, and structured, with the kind of quiet power that reveals itself over time. These are not loud wines, they’re contemplative, precise, and deeply tied to the soil and sea.
Chicho’s style is as understated as his wines. He works with humility, far from the spotlight, yet Fulcro has quietly gained cult status among sommeliers and collectors who recognize the finesse and singularity in his bottlings. His wines are a counterpoint to the easy-drinking, tropical Albariños that have flooded the market—they ask for attention, and they reward it.