Albarino Wine

Albarino is a new experience for many people. It has only recently been available in any quantity in the export market, at least as a wine from Spain. It was fairly well represented as Vinho Verde from Portugal, oh but I like this so much more. The truly fine examples of this grape are the dry white wines from the Rias Baixes section of the Galicia region of Northwestern Spain.

Weather conditions in the Rias Baixes are generally cool, windy and rainy. Vines were traditionally widely spaced and trained on granite pergolas called parrales to enhance sun and wind exposure ameliorating the chance of rot and fungal disease. Many vineyards today are moving to the espaldera system - a local variant of the Geneva Double Curtain training system as it is less labor-intensive and cheaper. I am anxious over this change. Same varietal, same soil, same microclimate, grapes grown on different trellising can still yield significantly different wines.

For Albarino virgins the first bottle will be a revelation; fragrances of citrus, more precisely of lemon zest and pink grapefruit, slightly under ripe white peaches and the smell of an alfalfa field when you walk through it early on a dewy morning. The wine was light-bodied and while the flavours reflected the fragrances it was hard to grasp on to any one as the bracing acid gave the wine a shimmer in the mouth.

The wine made traditionally does not age well but why should it? It is fresh, lovely and alive. I’m aghast at the trend realizing itself in the region now of doing malolactic on the wine so that it holds up longer in the bottle.