The 4,800ha wine region now known as Rías Baixas first gained appellation status in the early 1980s, as DO Albariño.

However, when Spain joined the EU in 1986, a geographic designation became mandatory and the name Rías Baixas was chosen.

This term refers to the picturesque estuaries that shape Galicia’s west coast, the source of superb fish and other seafood.

The main wine-producing area of Rías Baixas, Salnés, is strategically located between the Arousa and Pontevedra estuaries.

A popular tourist destination, it combines a rich cultural and gastronomic heritage with a landscape of contrasts, where mountains merge with the coastline.

Due to real estate pressure, land is very expensive, so selling vineyards is a lucrative business opportunity.

Nevertheless, according to the DO Rías Baixas 2025 vintage report summary, this area accounted for 65% of the wider region’s grape output in the 2025 harvest.

There are four other sub-zones in Rías Baixas. O Rosal, in the south, is the only one of these that faces the sea, at the mouth of the river Miño, which marks the border with Portugal.

Further inland, upriver, lies Condado do Tea, a warmer, drier area. A little to the north, between Condado do Tea and Salnés, lies the tiny Soutomaior.

And to the north of Salnés, also inland, is Ribeira do Ulla, an emergent area for larger planting operations given the DO’s smallholding area of 4,800ha distributed across about 24,000 plots.

It’s no surprise that, in the past, people made the most of the land by growing vegetables under the vine pergolas.

Albariño explosion

Given there were just over 200ha of Albariño in all of Galicia in 1999 (according to data from the Spain vineyard register, compiled by Madrid’s agricultural research institute IMIDRA), the DO has experienced meteoric growth.

Climate change has certainly helped.

As part of ‘Green Spain’, Rías Baixas remains one of the wettest wine regions in the world, with an annual average rainfall of 1,400mm-1,600mm.

Organic growing is still rare, but summers are drier now. ‘We’ve gone from harvesting in autumn to summer,’ says Eulogio Pomares of Bodegas Zárate. ‘This has solved many issues related to botrytis, poor ripeness and rainfall at harvest time.’

The largest vineyard areas are controlled by the cooperatives in Salnés, such as Martín Códax, Paco & Lola and Condes de Albarei.

The rest is shared among small- to medium-sized local producers and external players, notably from Rioja, which have been setting up in the area since the late 1980s. Most of them buy grapes from local growers.

With consumption of white wines on the rise, the last decade has seen a second wave of investors, including Ribera del Duero’s Vega Sicilia, whose much-anticipated first release from its new Bodegas y Viñedos Deiva project in Crecente (Condado do Tea) is scheduled for 2027.

This has caused an increase in demand for grapes, rising prices and new plantings, which have eventually led to a major correction in grape prices in 2025, when the area harvested a record 47.5 million kilograms.

Another generous harvest will probably challenge wine sales.

Levelling up

A growing number of producers are now focused on premiumisation.

This is usually achieved by either extending ageing of the wine on lees to gain complexity and ageing potential; by introducing vessels other than stainless steel (oak foudres, concrete, granite, amphorae); by focusing on specific soils or areas; or by producing single-vineyard wines.

There’s plenty to choose from. Most vineyards in Rías Baixas are planted on granite soils that have undergone varying degrees of weathering.

This often results in a sandy texture that has preserved small batches of ungrafted and pre-phylloxera vines. Schist veins and alluvial deposits can also be found in most sub-zones.

Other differences can also be brought about by elevation of vineyards, exposure and proximity to the sea and rivers. The drawback of most single-vineyard wines is that they’re produced in limited quantities.

Points of difference

With Albariño accounting for 97% of overall production in Rías Baixas, there’s little room for other varieties.

However, choosing to produce Godello, Treixadura (more common in Condado do Tea) or Caíño Blanco – a variety recovered by Terras Gauda in O Rosal – is a way to stand out.

White blends are more common in Condado do Tea, thanks to the presence of Treixadura, and O Rosal, the sub-zone featuring more varietal diversity, yet this category remains uncharted territory when it comes to high-end wines.

Traditional-method Albariño sparkling wines and reds are the two other small slices of the Rías Baixas pie.

With their vigorous bubbles and relatively high prices, it’s difficult for Albariño to compete with Cava and other Spanish sparkling wines, but extended ageing might help change that.

With alcohol levels of around 11%-12% – probably the lowest in Spain – the Rías Baixas red wines are a small but interesting category.

Climate change, together with some excellent local varieties, such as Espadeiro, Caíño and Brancellao, will undoubtedly boost the category.

Pioneer red wine producer Forjas del Salnés has been perfecting its selection process since 2024, and the winery now harvests grapes at different stages, relying exclusively on fully ripe berries.

This results in wines with more fruit and a slightly higher alcohol content, while retaining the area’s natural acidity.

20 of the best from Rías Baixas (and not just Albariño)

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Between the 8th and 9th centuries, Christian monastic orders came in great numbers to central Galicia, searching for solitary places to pray. They found what they were looking for in the Miño and Sil river canyons.

Carved out by tectonic forces over millions of years, the slopes of these deep valleys reach near-vertical inclines in some places, discouraging any unwanted passers-by.

The numerous resulting monasteries that cling to these slopes would inspire the modern wine region’s name: Ribeira Sacra, or ‘sacred riverbank’. People have been cultivating vines here for centuries, carving terraces from unforgiving granite and slate and painstakingly carrying baskets of grapes up the impossibly steep slopes.

This is one of Europe’s great terraced landscapes, deserving to be mentioned in the same breath as Côte-Rôtie, Mosel or the Douro. But Ribeira Sacra has never received the same recognition.

Part of that might be due to its geographical barriers and historical struggles. Its isolation was great for the monks, but not so great for the wine trade.

And once the railways came to Galicia in the 1800s, many growers couldn’t compete with the cheaper wine arriving from flat, fertile Castilla y León to its west.

Faced with hardship, huge numbers of people abandoned their vines and left the countryside – a trend that continued into and throughout the 20th century and, in smaller measure, continues today.

A revival

As Spain moved back to democracy from 1975 and began to open up, new opportunities came calling, bringing both money and new winemaking technology to the countryside.

By the early 1990s, a few pioneering local growers had joined forces to create an official wine region and, in 1996, Ribeira Sacra became a Denominación de Origen.

Now, nearly 30 years after gaining DO status, Galicia’s most heroic wine region (see box below) is finally coming into its own – even as it faces some familiar challenges. As Spain reckons with a changing climate, the light, floral, acidity-driven red wines of Ribeira Sacra may help to future-proof the region.

At the same time, a global decline in red wine consumption, and a lack of young people to take on the strenuous viticultural work their parents and grandparents started, threaten to quash any success achieved thus far.

But not all is lost: a new generation of winemakers is taking over, making more innovative choices than ever, and working to bring public perception of Ribeira Sacra in line with the huge amount of work it takes to grow and make wine on the banks of the Miño and Sil.

Here we introduce eight producers who are driving that change.

Fernando González

Adega Algueira

It was love at first sight for Fernando González when his father-in-law took him to see a family vineyard. He began making wine in the late 1970s. After learning from fellow visionary winemaker Raúl Pérez, he founded Adega Algueira in 2005.

González considers himself a sort of mouthpiece for the region, spreading the gospel of Ribeira Sacra along with a warning of what could be lost if there’s no one to continue.

Luckily for González, second-generation Fabio has joined his father at the helm of the winery. Algueira farms about 25ha of traditional grapes such as Mencía, Merenzao, Brancellao and Godello.

María José Yravedra

Ronsel do Sil

Beginning her career as an architect in Madrid, María José Yravedra didn’t set out to make wine in Ribeira Sacra. But after completing her architecture degree, she studied winemaking and bought property in Parada de Sil, in the Ribeiras do Sil sub-zone.

She rehabilitated an old winery and named it Ronsel do Sil, after the wake (ronsel) left by passing boats on the river Sil. She farms 10ha and also purchases grapes from local growers, some of them coming from the higher-elevation QuirogaBibei sub-zone.

Ronsel do Sil makes a range of wines, from Mencía-based red blends to single-variety expressions of lesser-known indigenous grapes such as Merenzao.

Xabi Seoane

Pacio (Familia Seoane Novelle)

Close to where the Sil river flows into the Miño river at Os Peares, Xabi Seoane farms 4ha of vines as part of a fazenda, or self-sustaining family farm. His family planted vines here in 2002, including Mencía and Merenzao, and released their first commercially sold wine in 2004.

When Xabi took over, he added indigenous grapes such as Brancellao, Espadeiro, Loureira and Doña Branca, and experimented with new winemaking vessels such as granite tanks.

Having left the DO in 2012, Xabi returned in 2019 when he felt the organisation had evolved sufficiently. As a result, Pacio has had vintages both in and out of the DO.

Curro Bareño

Fedellos do Couto

After making wine in the Sierra de Gredos, Madridborn Curro Bareño (above) and Jesús Olivares came to Galicia. In 2013, they founded Fedellos do Couto (see ‘Beyond the DO’) with Argentinian Pablo Soldavini.

‘Fedellos’ is a Galician word that means mischievous or restless. ‘O Couto’ refers to the location of the winery in the Pazo do Couto, a 16th-century manor house.

Fedellos do Couto began making wine within the Ribeira Sacra DO, but left the appellation in 2016. Soon after, Soldavini left. Now, Barreño and Olivares focus on the area around the town of Castro Caldelas, as well as the Bibei river valley where they farm grapes around the village of Manzaneda.

Pedro Rodríguez

Adegas Guímaro

Pedro Rodríguez inherited a family winemaking tradition that dates back to long before the family were founding members of DO Ribeira Sacra in 1996. Guímaro (‘rebel’, in Galician) was a popular nickname for the winemaker’s grandfather and also applies to his approach to winemaking.

When he took over in 2001, he incorporated new techniques such as whole-cluster fermentation and ageing wines in foudres.

He makes two entry-level wines sourced from a mix of plots as well as single-vineyard reds, all of which are blends of Mencía and other traditional varieties like Caíño Tinto, Sousón, Brancellao and Merenzao.

Alfonso Torrente

Envínate

Though it’s not technically in the DO, it’s almost impossible to talk about Ribeira Sacra without mentioning Envínate (‘wine yourself’ in English). Alfonso Torrente, José Angel Martínez, Laura Ramos and Roberto Santana met while studying winemaking at university in Alicante, and together founded this multi-region project.

Torrente introduced the other three winemakers to his home region of Ribeira Sacra and they began making their ‘Lousas’ (the Galician name for the local slate soils) range of wines.

They currently make a village cuvée and two single-vineyard reds, sourcing fruit from across the region. Since 2017, they’ve marketed their wines outside the Ribeira Sacra DO because of disagreements with the consejo regulador authorities.

Paula Fernández

Dominio do Bibei

As its name suggests, Dominio do Bibei is in the Bibei valley, the easternmost part of the appellation and on the border with DO Valdeorras. The winery was founded in 2001 by Javier Domínguez, the brother of Galician fashion designer Adolfo Domínguez.

Until 2015, Priorat-based Sara Pérez and René Barbier Jr were the consulting winemakers.

Now, Paula Fernández (formerly of Dominio de Tares in Bierzo) leads the project, making wines mostly from Mencía, but with small percentages of the indigenous grapes Brancellao, Mouratón, Sousón and Caíño, as well as white grapes Godello, Albariño and Doña Branca (spelled Doña Blanca in other parts of Spain).

Adrián Rodríguez

Abadía da Cova

Adrián Rodríguez is the fourth generation of his family to make wine in Cuñas, on the banks of the Miño river in the cooler climate western part of Ribeira Sacra.

His great-grandfather Baldomero Moure Pérez planted vines on family property upon his return from Cuba, where he had emigrated as a young man to find work.

Over the years, the Rodríguez-Moure family became known for making wine and distilling orujo, the traditional Galician pomace brandy.

Today, Adrián continues the family legacy alongside sister Paloma and cousin José Moure. Together they have begun making single-parcel bottlings using indigenous grapes such as Brancellao and Merenzao, as well as white wines from Albariño and Godello, with Adrián in charge of the winemaking and viticulture.

Heroic viticulture in northwest Spain

The first people to grow grapes in Ribeira Sacra did so out of sheer determination – and with particular spiritual attunement. They dug narrow, stonewalled terraces into the steep hillsides and planted them with vines.

Today, the punishing geography is a double-edged sword: the steep terraced slopes allow grapes to soak up the sun – important in rainy Galicia – but they force growers to do everything by hand, from planting to pruning to harvest.

Workers pick grapes, put them into crates, then carry the crates on their back up slopes that range from a 35% gradient to near vertical.

It’s certainly a heroic feat – so much so that the wine world even has a name for it: ‘heroic viticulture’ is a term coined to acknowledge the enormous amount of effort it takes to grow grapes in the precarious conditions that exist in wine regions such as Ribeira Sacra.

Since 2011, CERVIM (Centre for Research, Environmental Sustainability and Advancement of Mountain Viticulture, based in Valle d’Aosta, northwest Italy) has given wine regions a specific seal for heroic viticulture if they meet certain criteria, such as cultivating vines at elevations above 500 metres, on slopes above 30% gradient, or on terraces or embankments.

European regions such as Valtellina and Trentino Alto-Adige in Italy, and Côte-Rôtie in France hold this distinction; in Spain, Ribeira Sacra is one of only a few DOs that can use the seal.

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Harvest in Galicia is gathering pace against a backdrop of blackened trees and scorched earth. For decades, summers in the northwestern Spanish region have brought wildfires, but this year stands out as one of the worst in recent memory. Months of drought, extreme heat, and strong winds created the perfect conditions to spread the explosive, fast-moving blazes that tore through Galicia’s interior for nearly two weeks in August, burning through more than 90,723 hectares.

The majority of the fires were concentrated in the interior province of Ourense, home to four of Galicia’s five Denominaciones de Origen (Ribeiro, Ribeira Sacra, Valdeorras, and Monterrei) and one third of all vineyard land in Galicia.

The largest blaze began in Larouco, in DO Valdeorras. It burned 30,000 hectares, making it the largest fire in Galicia since records began. Another fire, which broke out near Oímbra, burned through 17,000 hectares, including parts of DO Monterrei. Two other fires in DO Ribeiro were able to be contained before damaging vines.

With the two largest fires now under control, growers are assessing damage as harvest begins. According to Gonzalo Losada, manager of DO Monterrei, initial reports are cause for optimism. ‘In many places we’re seeing that although there was damage to a vineyard, it wasn’t as bad as expected,’ Losada said. ‘The vast majority saw damage on just the perimeter of the parcels.’

Santiago Pérez, viticultural technician for DO Valdeorras, said that vineyards often acted as natural firebreaks, stopping the flames from penetrating beyond the outer rows of vines and protecting nearby homes. But in some cases, entire vineyards were affected, erasing the hard work of an entire season. ‘Grape growing is work that takes hours and days, with no weekends or holidays off,’ said Losada. ‘Finding your vineyard damaged brings morale down a lot.’

Alvaredos-Hobbs: present and future destroyed

While the DOs are still assessing the overall damage, it’s clear that one winery was particularly affected. Alvaredos-Hobbs is a collaborative project between the Galician Antonio López and Californian winemaker Paul Hobbs. The winery is located in López’s native Alvaredos, a tiny village on the far eastern edge of the DO Ribeira Sacra.

The Larouco wildfire spread to both banks of the Sil River and eventually surrounded Alvaredos. While the village itself was spared, winemaker Cecilia Fernández said all the winery’s vineyards were damaged to some extent. She estimates that 70% of production was lost. ‘Even the little ground cover we had burned,’ said Fernández. ‘Some vines were completely destroyed, some trunks began to burn, and some plants are just gone.’

Paul Hobbs said that although wildfires are a recurring threat in California, what happened in Galicia was by far the worst he had experienced in a growing season. ‘I’ve never lost an entire vintage,’ he said. ‘I have a feeling we’ve lost more than one vintage.’

Underlying issues

As the communities affected by the wildfires pick up the pieces, many are urging the regional government to tackle the root causes. ‘There has to be a rethink of forest management,’ said Fernández, ‘because there isn’t any.’

Galicia’s interior is dominated by pine trees grown for timber. As they are often left untended until harvest, dense, flammable brush accumulates and elevates fire risk.

The tragedy also underscores the consequences of the demographic phenomenon known as ‘España vacia’: the large swathes of the Spanish countryside left depopulated as people look for better opportunities in urban areas.

Nacho González, a winemaker who also sustained heavy losses in Valdeorras, did not mince his words when it came to the regional government. ‘They’re useless,’ he said. ‘The big problem we have here is abandoned forest. One single match and it’s a bomb. If the forest were cared for, there wouldn’t be a problem,’ he added. ‘That’s the truth.’

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The greatest grapes, like the most influential leaders, will only achieve widespread adulation if they can perform under a diverse range of conditions.

Ideally, they should possess characteristics that appeal to experienced enthusiasts and neophytes alike.

There’s a reason why Chardonnay, for instance, is the most-planted white grape variety in the world (other than Spain’s Airén, which is used in brandy production).

Depending on how and where it’s grown, it can be profound, rich and ageworthy, or fun, bright and ready-to-drink.

Albariño, while hardly threatening to usurp Chardonnay’s crown as king of white grapes, is gaining acclaim across the world, for many of the same reasons.

Scroll down for notes and scores of 18 superb Albariño wines from beyond Spain

The ancient grape (known as Alvarinho in Portugal) came to prominence on the Iberian peninsula. For centuries, it has dominated plantings in Rías Baixas, in northwestern Spain, and Vinho Verde in Portugal’s far north.

But now Albariño’s dominion is expanding, as winemakers across the globe embrace its versatility.

Albariño’s litheness in the vineyard is mirrored in the cellar, with expressions ranging from complex and elegant to fun and zippy, depending on when and how the fresh, fruit-forward grape is harvested, fermented and aged.

California

Albariño plantings have been on the rise for years in California. According to the most recent annual report from the US Department of Agriculture, in 2024 there were 280ha under vine.

This is up from 124ha in 2015 – an increase of 126%. It thrives particularly well in Lodi, which produced 33% of the state’s total last year, according to the Lodi Winegrape Commission.

Markus Bokisch (pictured, above) of Bokisch Vineyards was one of the first to identify Albariño’s promise in California, bringing it to Lodi from Rías Baixas in 1998 and harvesting his first Albariño grapes in 2000.

Having previously worked with the variety in Penedès and noting how easy it was to grow, he felt sure that it could work in Lodi’s hot conditions – even if a little tweaking might be required.

‘Climatically, we’re not Rías Baixas, so even though the soils match, we knew that we’d have to make adjustments to get the results I wanted,’ Bokisch explains.

‘We hit [ripeness level] 21 Brix in August, one month earlier than Galicia, so that’s when we picked it, even though the grapes were just showing precursors to the aromatics we wanted.’

The experiment was a revelation, yielding tasting notes that didn’t make immediate sense. ‘I always assumed the brininess of Albariño from Rías Baixas came from its maritime location, but clearly it’s not coming from sea mist,’ says Bokisch.

‘We get the brininess here, which means it must be the soil. Some of the fruit flavours you expect are also dialled up, kissed by California sun,’ he adds. Rather than lemons, Albariño in Lodi may show tangerines, or grapefruit in cooler years.

California Albariño to seek out: Bokisch Vineyards, Imagery Estate Winery, Scheid Vineyards, Tangent.

Oregon

Further north on the US west coast, Oregon is also embracing Albariño’s potential, with Abacela winery leading the way.

While there are now just 63ha planted, according to the 2024 Oregon Vineyard & Winery Report, what exists is beloved by growers, merchants and consumers.

‘We bought the property in the Umpqua Valley because my dad thought it would be promising for Iberian varieties,’ says Greg Jones, CEO of Abacela (pictured, above). ‘We couldn’t find any good Albariño initially.’

But then he located a source for an alleged ‘suitcase clone’ [grapevine cuttings imported illicitly, bypassing official phytosanitary restrictions] that had been secreted into California during the 1990s.

Abacela planted in 2000 and now has about 5.2ha thriving across the estate. ‘Comparing our results with Galicia, the phenology performance is very similar, with bloom, veraison and harvest happening here within one to two days of Galicia,’ he says.

‘Our soils are slightly older, but rainfall, and growing temperature and degree days are very similar.’

In the glass, saltiness is less prevalent in Oregon, but the liveliness and Meyer lemon flower power is there. Acacia wood ageing brings notes of apple and pear, and rounds out some of the hyperactive zing.

Other producers, such as Cyler Varnum, co-owner of Varnum Vintners in the Willamette Valley, are turning to Albariño because of changing climatic conditions.

‘The warming trend in the Willamette Valley is impossible to ignore,’ he says. ‘We’re experimenting with fermenting and ageing for six months in neutral French oak, and partial skin contact, which improves texture and softens the acids.’

In the glass, Oregon Albariño is generally more round and fruit-forward than its Galician counterpart. It is slightly less saline but as bright and fresh, with added texture and complexity thanks to innovative ageing.

Oregon Albariño to seek out: Abacela, Analemma Wines, Varnum Vintners.

Uruguay

In 2002, winemaker and director of Bodega Bouza Dr Eduardo Boido planted Uruguay’s first Albariño.

Today, one winemaker growing 0.87ha has expanded to 38 winemakers and growers cultivating 95ha, according to data from INAVI, Uruguay’s National Viticulture Institute.

Boido pioneered Albariño because of the family’s Galician heritage and its belief that the grape would thrive in Uruguay’s rainy climate. ‘Its loose clusters and small berries with thick skins make it well-suited to adapting to climates like ours,’ he explains.

Plantings have ticked up as other producers, such as Bodega Familia Deicas and Bodega Garzón (pictured, above), have invested in both single-variety expressions and white blends that highlight Albariño.

While Bouza opts for a bright, party-ready expression of young Albariño (fermentation is mainly in stainless steel tanks with selected yeasts),

Deicas is tending more towards deep aromas and ageworthy elegance (spontaneous fermentation happens in Burgundian oak barrels, then the wine is aged for 15 months in barrels).

Across the Canelones region, terroir factors such as proximity to the Atlantic, and diverse set of volcanic and granitic soils, are making for some seriously exciting Albariños.

Uruguay Albariño to seek out: Bouza, Familia Deicas, Garzón.

Chile

Albariño made its way into Chile as late as 2009, with the first 0.47ha registered in Maule, according to Wines of Chile.

The Catastro Vitivinícola Nacional, Chile’s national vineyard statistical survey, records that plantings have now increased to 17.4ha, out of 124,436ha – still a minuscule percentage, but a sign of enthusiasm.

‘Interest is clearly rising among both winemakers and sommeliers, particularly as the market looks for fresh, distinctive white wines with character and versatility,’ says Julio Alonso (pictured, above), executive director for Wines of Chile North America, adding that producers are most eager to explore coastal areas with granite-based soils.

‘The variety’s natural freshness, balanced acidity and elegant aromatics resonate well with today’s consumers, who are shifting toward lighter styles with strong mineral expression,’ he says.

Albariños from powerhouse premium producers such as Montes make the most of cool nights, ancient granitic soils and proximity to the ocean (the company’s Zapallar estate in Aconcagua is 11km from the Pacific) to produce fresh, saline wines with more vibrancy, tension and defined minerality than their Spanish and Portuguese cousins.

Chile Albariño to seek out: Garcés Silva, Montes, MontGras.

New Zealand

Plantings of Albariño in New Zealand are relatively small, but generating excitement.

There were 75ha under vine in 2024, up from 64ha in 2023, according to the 2024 New Zealand Winegrowers Vineyard Report.

The first planting occurred as recently as in 2009, but already Albariño can be found throughout the country, with particular concentrations in Gisborne, Marlborough and Hawke’s Bay.

Nelson’s Neudorf Vineyards, which farms organically, sees great promise in Albariño’s flavour profile and natural fungus-fighting abilities.

‘We first planted it in 2013, because it suits the Nelson profile beautifully,’ notes sales and marketing director Rosie Finn (pictured, above).

‘We have slightly higher rainfall than Marlborough and long sunshine hours. Albariño has naturally thick skins, which makes it hardy in tougher vintages and is especially helpful when farming organically.’

Babich Wines initially planted Albariño because the late Joe Babich wanted to investigate how ‘alternative’ varieties could perform in the vineyard and cellar.

‘The thick-skinned berries and loose bunch structure make it particularly suitable for the more challenging conditions in Auckland,’ says David Babich, current CEO.

‘Marlborough Albariño tends to come through brighter aromatically and on the palate. Ours is fresh and rich in flavour, with citrus and stone fruit.’

Daniel Brennan made his first Albariño for Decibel Wines in 2023, finding it was a hit at consumer tastings.

‘It’s a win for everyone,’ he says. ‘Winemakers love it for the acidity, which we can soften in neutral barrels if we need to. And consumers love it because it’s crisp, bright and has salinity, with the warm hug of apricots and peaches. It’s not too racy like some acid-driven whites.’

NZ Albariño to seek out: Decibel, Neudorf, Nautilus Estate, Villa Maria.

Albariño around the world: the best of the rest

A host of other countries and regions are betting on the future of Albariño, thanks to its climate hardiness and consumer-friendly profile.

Argentina

The relentlessly experimental Zuccardi Valle de Uco planted Albariño in 2015 in its San Pablo vineyard, in one of the coolest pockets of the Uco Valley, with calcareous soils.

Winemaker Sebastián Zuccardi (pictured, above) ages and ferments in concrete to allow the grape’s purest expression to emerge.

‘It shows citrus and yellow fruit, but the fingerprint of the calcareous soils creates a different structure than Albariño from Spain and Portugal,’ he says.

Names to look for: Zuccardi.

Australia

Initially Australian growers mistakenly planted Savagnin as Albariño.

The mix-up has been fixed, but there is still only a tiny amount of Albariño produced, with fewer than 1,000 litres exported to Japan, Hong Kong, the UK and Guam, according to Wine Australia.

Briar Ridge has 1.8ha of Albariño under vine in the Hunter Valley, which winemaker Andrew Duff makes ‘like Hunter Semillon, with at least three months of time spent on lees to aid in mid-palate weight – I aim for freshness and fruit dominance’.

Names to look for: Bassham Wines, Briar Ridge, Mallee Estate.

South Africa

‘Growers in a number of areas are exploring Albariño and plantings, while small, have quadrupled in the past 10 years,’ says Jim Clarke, marketing manager for Wines of South Africa.

‘The variety does very well on granitic soils, which South Africa has plenty of.’

Names to look for: Migliarina, Newton Johnson, Spier, Springfield Estate.

Washington State, USA

With its Idilico label, Pomum Cellars focuses exclusively on Spanish varieties grown in Washington State.

Owner Javier Alfonso believes Albariño is ideal for the region. ‘We assumed it would ripen early because it’s considerably warmer here, but it ripens late in the white grape season,’ he says.

‘Plant vigour is not excessive and the acidity is amazingly high, which is great here, where we struggle to maintain naturally high acid in white wines.’ Washington Albariño offers ripe stone fruits, with a soft, plush mouthfeel.

Names to look for: Grosgrain Vineyards, Idilico.

18 Albariño from around the globe:

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On 1 September, the Xunta de Galicia (Galician regional government) authorised crisis distillation in DO Ribeira Sacra, following a request submitted by the local rural council in May.

The authorisation marks the first time a Galician wine region will implement the measure, which is aimed at withdrawing wine from the market to balance supply and demand. Eligible wineries will receive funds from Galicia’s Ministry of Agriculture in exchange for distilling surplus wine into industrial alcohol. The resolution is now pending ratification by the Spanish central government and the European Union.

The authorisation comes after months of warnings from small growers that their livelihoods would be seriously threatened if they could not find buyers for this year’s crop. The region’s largest winery opted not to renew contracts with over 400 growers for the 2024 vintage, blaming surplus stocks and declining sales of red wine, which accounts for around 80% of production in Ribeira Sacra.

Long-looming crisis

Antonio Lombardía Crespo, the president of Ribeira Sacra’s regulatory council, said the crisis has been looming since 2020: ‘The pandemic caused a delay in the release of wines to the market.

‘This, combined with historically abundant harvests in the past several years and the fact that this is a DO which mainly produces young wines, created a situation that made extraordinary measures necessary.’

Despite promises of aid, many growers feel increasingly desperate. One winemaker, who requested anonymity, said she feels ‘ignored’ by the regional government and a sense of ‘absolute impotence’. She and other growers have accused the Xunta of prolonged inaction for fear of affecting the Ribeira Sacra’s reputation and damaging the second campaign to have the region designated a World Heritage Site following the rejection of the first application in 2021 .

Wider socio-economic issues

On 2 September, with harvest underway, the Xunta de Galicia announced that it was allocating €2M (£1.68m) to ‘fight vineyard loss’ in Ribeira Sacra, and up to €2.4m (£2m), to fund crisis distillation. However, many growers view the aid package as insufficient to offset the high production costs of cultivating vines on steep terraces.

In addition, wineries who choose to distil are forced to first transport wine to the distilleries themselves and at their own cost, and will likely receive less than one euro per litre of distilled wine – which will then be subject to taxes.

On 6 September, the local agricultural union convened a protest outside the seat of the regulatory council, calling on the Xunta de Galicia to increase aid for struggling growers. They fear the current situation will exacerbate current demographic issues: the average grower in the region is 65 years old, and Ribeira Sacra has lost nearly 700 hectares of vineyards to abandonment in the past decade.

Lombardía signalled future changes to Ribeira Sacra’s regulations to balance supply and demand, explaining that he wants to ‘regraft more native red grape varieties and rezone the DO for the production of single-parcel wine, moving production toward mid to high-end wines.’

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With just weeks to go before harvest in Rías Baixas, the region has been rocked by an unprecedented act of sabotage.

On the morning of 2 August, the members of the cooperative Viña Moraima discovered that over 900 vines had been intentionally cut at the trunk during the night, causing approximately €120,000 (£103,000) in damages.

‘Like losing a child’

The damaged plot covers approximately 7,000 m² and was the only vineyard owned collectively by Viña Moraima rather than by one of the cooperative’s individual members. It contained both centuries-old vines the cooperative was maintaining, as well as a four-year-old planting of Albariño and Caíño.

‘It’s like losing a child,’ said Viña Moraima’s winemaker Roberto Taibo. ‘You can’t imagine what it’s like to see 11 people – some of them in their 60s and 70s – crying, seeing what had happened.’

Some of the vines were nearly 200 years old and bore as-yet unidentified red grape varieties that were being studied by the Biological Mission of Galicia (MBG-CSIC), headquartered in Pontevedra. Viña Moraima estimates that only 5% of the damaged vines will be able to be recovered.

Open letter to the perpetrators

‘If what you wanted was to hurt us, congratulations, you succeeded,’ the cooperative wrote in an open letter to the saboteur(s) published on its website. ‘Your efforts (or of those who did the dirty work for you, because we’re sure that besides being a criminal, you’re a coward) paid off.’

‘You, dear saboteur, who didn’t play under a vine as a child, are not yet aware of the true nature of what you’ve done; because we’re not only talking about money […] The vine is memory, wisdom, history. But it’s also fragile, and just one cut is enough to make it all disappear forever,’ the cooperative wrote.

So far the only clue comes from the CCTV camera of a neighbouring industrial heating and gas plant, which captured the first vines coming down just after midnight, the morning of 2 August.

The growers believe that several people were involved, as cutting hundreds of vines in a short amount of time would be too much work for one person. The perpetrator(s) worked methodically, presumably using small electric secateurs and chainsaws.

Viña Moraima said that the events were not an act of revenge or a settling of scores. ‘There are no debts, we have no problems with anyone and we’re very healthy… or we were until Friday,’ cooperative spokesman Roberto Rivas told El País. Rivas said that the cooperative members ‘have a suspicion and the Guardia Civil is working with that hypothesis’.

In the meantime, the cooperative has made an appeal for anyone with leads or relevant information to come forward.

Founded in 2006 and located in Barro (Pontevedra, Alto Salnés), Viña Moraima is a small cooperative in the Rías Baixas appellation, with 11 members and a production of around 100,000 bottles annually.

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Beth Willard, Sarah Jane Evans MW and Pierre Mansour tasted 59 wines, with 1 Outstanding and 26 Highly recommended.

Galician whites: Panel tasting results

59 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 1

Highly recommended 26

Recommended 31

Commended 0

Fair 1

Poor 0

Entry criteria: Producers and UK agents were invited to submit their current-vintage white wines – single varietals or blends of any authorised white grapes except Albariño – from any of the five DOs in Galicia: Monterrei, Rías Baixas, Ribeira Sacra, Ribeiro, Valdeorras.

From Godello to Treixadura, Loureiro to Caiño Blanco, this tasting offered some exceptional examples of Galicia’s white wines, as well as some new discoveries and a few surprises.

Here we focused on Galicia’s treasure trove of white varieties excluding Albariño, which has already earned itself plenty of attention and been well explored in other tastings. Spanish agriculture ministry data for 2022 shows that production of white wines across the four provinces of Galicia constitutes a significant 69%, bucking the trend of the majority of regions in Spain where red varieties are more widely planted.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores from the Galician whites panel tasting

The judging panel was most impressed with the high quality and consistency of the wines. Nearly half of them – 27 out of 59 – scored 90 points or more. ‘There were no really bad wines in the tasting,’ noted Pierre Mansour. While consistency is a common feature of Spanish wine tastings, we speculated that Galician whites must surely be among the best performers across all price points. It is interesting to note that three of the wines awarded 90 points are under £15, so despite rising demand and costs in Galicia, there is still value to be found.

One variety dominated this tasting: Godello was present in 44 of the wines, either on its own or as part of a blend. Sarah-Jane Evans MW commented that Godello ‘makes much more serious wines than some would expect’ and is the ‘next thing to watch after Albariño’. There were Godellos from each of the five Galician DOs (Denominación de Origen), which allowed the panel to highlight some interesting regional differences.

In this tasting, the Godellos from Rías Baixas and Ribeiro, the two regions closer to the Galician coast, seemed richer and bolder. Godello from Ribeira Sacra was spicier and offered up more mountain herbs and freshness. Monterrei was quite lively and direct with distinctive citrus notes, and the wines from Valdeorras were more floral, vibrant and finessed.

See notes and scores for all the Galician whites panel tasting wines

Treixadura, the most important grape in Ribeiro, somewhat disappointed in this tasting. Mansour suggested ‘it is working better in blends rather than on its own’, but perhaps some of the region’s best, single- variety Treixadura wines were not submitted. There are certainly outstanding examples in the region, so our panel felt there is still plenty of quality Treixadura to discover for markets beyond Spain.

In contrast, the panel was impressed by some quirky and characterful wines made from rarer indigenous varieties. The top-scoring wine is made from the almost extinct Blanco Lexítimo, while another high-scorer is a single-variety Caiño Blanco. Some of the blends also showed off the potential of other local grapes such as Loureiro, Doña Branca, Lado and Torrontés.

While some familiar names feature among the producers of the top wines on this list, we were pleasantly surprised to see some different labels, unfamiliar to the panel. Our parting hope was to see more of these Galician white varieties, as well as up-and-coming producers, making their way to our market soon.

Galician whites: Panel tasting scores

The judges

Beth Willard is involved in sourcing wines for both the on- and off-trade in the UK, with a particular focus on Eastern Europe and Spain. Formerly buying manager at Direct Wines, she is a member of Spain’s Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino, and a DWWA joint Regional Chair for Spain.

Sarah Jane Evans MW is a Decanter contributing editor and Co-Chair of the Decanter World Wine Awards. Her latest book The Wines of Central and Southern Spain (£35 Infinite Ideas) is set for release in early 2024.

Pierre Mansour is director of wine at The Wine Society, and has been buying The Society’s Spanish wines since 2008. He is a member of Spain’s Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino, and a DWWA joint Regional Chair for Spain.

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When the Fiesta del Albariño began in 1953, it was very low-key – there were so few Albariños produced at the time that the same producer won the Best of Show award three years in a row – but it’s mushroomed into something much more substantial, with parades, concerts, workshops and loads of wines.

A couple of weeks before this summer’s event, Galicia hosted another, much smaller festival in the village of As Neves, close to the Portuguese border. This was the 17th edition of the Feria del Tinto de Rías Baixas, devoted to the region’s reds. Red plantings account for just under 1% of the Denominación de Origen’s 4,480ha, compared with Albariño’s 96%, so you can understand why the Feria is, of necessity, a more select event. And yet its significance is definitely growing.

The numbers are still comparatively small, but Rías Baixas’ reds are some of the most exciting in Spain right now – a secret that’s been shared by Hispanophiles for the past decade and is finally reaching a larger audience. Anyone who’s tasted the wines made by the likes of Albamar, Forjas del Salnés, Fulcro and Zárate – all brilliant Albariño producers, too – will surely agree. They are what Xurxo Alba of Albamar calls ‘reds with the souls of whites’: fresh, light-bodied, complex and wonderfully distinctive.

Wines from varieties such as Caiño Tinto or Espadeiro may seem new, but Galicia has a long history of growing red grapes. One of the most famous poems in the Galician language, Ramón Cabanillas’ Facing a Cup of Espadeiro Wine, hymned the latter grape’s nobility in 1917. Indeed, as recently as the 1970s, the overwhelming majority of what are now Rías Baixas’ vineyards were red. (The DO wasn’t created until 1988.) Marcos Barros of Maior de Mendoza, who’s just released a new blend called Variedades Tintas, told me that one of his strongest childhood memories was ‘treading red grapes with my grandfather’.

Why weren’t these wines better known? Firstly, most of them were produced in small quantities and drunk by the people who made them, or consumed in local bars and restaurants. Even today, Galician vineyards are generally atomised, divided into thousands of minifundios, or smallholdings. Also, they were often pretty rustic, with tooth enamel-threatening levels of acidity and rough, green, hair-shirt tannins.

Several things have helped to revolutionise the image of Rías Baixas’ reds. Climate change is the most important. Galicia remains a comparatively wet place to grow grapes, but harvests today are generally two weeks earlier than they were at the turn of the century. In the past, red grapes often struggled to ripen – and failed to do so entirely on occasion. Those warmer growing seasons started in 2011 and, despite the odd exception in later-picked vintages like 2021, have continued ever since. As a result, the region’s reds are much more consistent than they were.

Inspired by bodegas in Ribeira Sacra and, just over the border into Castilla y León, Bierzo, Rías Baixas started to take its own reds seriously again in 2005. That was the year when Rodri Méndez of Forjas del Salnés (aided by Bierzo superstar Raúl Pérez) and Señorío de Rubiós made their first reds. Sales were slow at first, but people gradually began to realise how brilliant these reds could be – and how much diversity they offer. In 2010, there were 16 producers; today, 45 of the region’s 178 bodegas make reds as well as whites.

Mencía, the main grape in Bierzo and Ribeira Sacra, is the second most planted red in Rías Baixas. But the list of eight permitted varieties also includes Brancellao, Caiño Tinto, Castañal, Espadeiro, Loureira Tinta, Pedral and Sousón, some of which are grown across the Miño river in Portugal, too. All of them have their qualities, but Espadeiro is the most fragrant and refined. Ramón Cabanillas, the poet who praised its unique qualities, was right all along.

In my glass this month

Rodri Méndez’s lipsmacking 93-point red Forjas del Salnés, Goliardo Tintos de Mar 2020 (£20 Decántalo) uses more or less equal amounts of Caiño Tinto, Espadeiro and Loureira Tinta from the Salnés Valley with Sousón from the warmer Condado de Tea sub-region. Bright, tangy, refreshing and energetic, it’s quintessential stuff, with redcurrant and pomegranate fruit, top notes of mint and wild herbs and thrilling minerality.

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Sarah Jane Evans MW, Pierre Mansour and Beth Willard tasted 137 wines, with 1 Exceptional, 5 Outstanding and 71 Highly recommended.

Albariño: Panel tasting scores

137 wines tasted

Exceptional 1

Outstanding 5

Highly recommended 71

Recommended 59

Commended 1

Fair 0

Poor 0

Entry criteria: Producers and UK agents were invited to submit their current-release vintages of still white wines made from 100% Albariño

Search this website for Rías Baixas Albariño reviews and you will find we did a panel tasting way back in 2016. It was already an established favourite on wine lists: the new face of Spanish white, peachy and unoaked. We talked then of the risk that global demand was turning Albariño into another Pinot Grigio.

The verdict then was that it was a tasting of two halves. Said Pierre Mansour at the time: there were ‘some truly great [wines] with real identity and class… no poor or faulty wines, but too many neutral ones’.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores from the Albariño panel tasting

Fast forward to 2023 and we expected a similar outcome, using the classic Albariño vocabulary: peach, citrus, white flowers. To our delight, we found we were using a much broader range of descriptors: flint, mineral, saline, Atlantic, preserved lemon, elderflower, dried mango, savoury, serious… Altogether it was a really enjoyable tasting, full of promise for lovers of Atlantic whites. Seven years on, Mansour was delighted to declare: ‘The overall standard was very high.’

Our verdicts can be divided into three: quality, diversity, ageability. In terms of quality, the results speak for themselves. More than half of the wines scored 90 points or more. Six scored 95pts or more: each one a different style. Only one wine was faulty (corked, so not included in this coverage). However, the quality of these wines is reflected in their pricing. ‘Albariño is not a value wine,’ observed Mansour. We looked to recommend value wines but it was difficult. Of the 18 wines priced at £15 or under, only one scored 93pts, and the rest 91pts or less.

On diversity, Beth Willard confirmed that ‘clearly, Rías Baixas is not homogenous’. Gone are the uniform descriptors. Today the sub-zones, north to south, reveal their differences – from the seashell, saline notes of many (coastal) Salnés sub-zone wines to the ripeness of Condado do Tea – a little more inland and warmer, on the banks of the river Tea – and the distinct fennel character noted by Willard of the O Rosal sub-zone wines. Equally, the winemaking was diverse – but in a good way. While stainless steel dominates, more Albariño producers are using oak, but in small proportions or larger or older containers. The bonus is that in general the handling was sensitive. Willard was pleased to note that few producers were attempting to make a Sauvignon Blanc-style wine.

See all 137 Albariño wines from the panel tasting

As for ageability, two-thirds of the wines were from the latest 2022 vintage. We felt that many were too young and would have benefited from another six months in bottle. Notably, the majority of our Outstanding wines were older or much older. What this tasting resoundingly proved is that in the right place, and carefully handled, Albariño ages beautifully. The model is Pazo Señorans’ Selección de Añada, grown on xabre, the local weathered granite. The wine is unoaked and aged on its lees in stainless steel for 30 months. It was a pioneering wine, but is now joined by others, notably the Añada de Baladiña, with its 10 years in bottle after lees ageing.

The final verdict? Continue to enjoy your Rías Baixas Albariño young. However do also seek out the very individual small producers, such as Xosé Lois Sebio, working in the region with old and very old vines. Above all, do explore the glorious mature wines.

The best Albariño is a keeper, and one of Spain’s great wines.

Albariño: Panel tasting scores

The judges

Sarah Jane Evans MW is a Decanter contributing editor and Co-Chair of the Decanter World Wine Awards. Her latest book The Wines of Central and Southern Spain (£35 Infinite Ideas) is set for release in early 2024.

Pierre Mansour is director of wine at The Wine Society, and has been buying The Society’s Spanish wines since 2008. He is a member of Spain’s Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino, and a DWWA joint Regional Chair for Spain.

Beth Willard is involved in sourcing wines for both the on- and off-trade in the UK, with a particular focus on Eastern Europe and Spain. Formerly buying manager at Direct Wines, she is a member of Spain’s Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino, and a DWWA joint Regional Chair for Spain.

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We’re sitting round the table at the Pazo Señorans winery and my neighbor, the winery’s export manager Javier Izurieta Romero, passes the crab. You get a different flavor from each part of the body, the claws, the brown meat and the legs, he explains earnestly. And my goodness, he’s right. The texture, too. It’s the best crab I’ve ever eaten.

The accompaniment is the winery’s Albariño . Our hosts don’t go so far as to pair different wines with each component of the crab, but you feel they might well have done – so seriously it is seafood taken in Galicia.

It’s impossible to visit this wild, rugged coastline without gorging on it. ‘People think of Spain as sunshine and beaches, but it’s an Atlantic cuisine rather than a Mediterranean one,’ says Spanish food importer Monika Linton, author of Brindisa: The True Food of Spain . ‘It’s actually much more like Ireland or Scotland.’

The most iconic dish is octopus a la Gallega, or ‘octopus Galician-style’ (see recipe below), also known as pulpo a la feria, for which the locals have a real passion. It’s a relatively simple dish – octopus prep aside – of boiled octopus dressed with olive oil and pimenton and served with boiled potatoes.

Octopus has to be tenderised before you eat it, a daunting procedure that involves plunging it in and out of a cauldron of boiling water. Even the locals resort to buying it frozen.

When visiting Galicia you might also be offered percebes (prehistoric-looking barnacles that rather resemble a dinosaur’s toes), another local speciality that is perhaps more of an acquired taste – but Albariño can make pretty much anything taste good.

Other seafood dishes in Galicia that you might well find elsewhere in Spain are oysters (there is even a Rua das Ostras in Vigo), scallops – their shell the symbol of the Camino de Santiago – often served gratinated, deep fried squid, and irresistibly fat, juicy prawns (we were served them warm with alioli and cold with mayonnaise during the same meal). Not to mention the impossibly tender razor clams swimming in garlic-laced oil. Hake is a favourite for main course dishes, along with monkfish, which makes a great seafood stew. In Spain, monkfish tails are still affordable.

Rustic charm

Galicians are also great canners. Tinned fish is a real delicacy here, not in any way regarded as inferior to freshly caught. Go into any small wine bar, such as the Ribeira de Fefiñáns in Cambados, and you’ll find rows of colourful, beautifully designed tins that will then appear, freshly opened, as a tapa. Fast food, Galician-style.

Galicia used to be relatively poor so the food is more rustic than it is in the Basque Country, with its greater proximity to France. ‘It’s quite a traditional area – it hasn’t had the same influx of tourism as other parts of Spain, so a lot of the old traditions have been preserved,’ says Linton.

Another speciality is empanada. Not the small pasty-shaped version you find in South America, but generally cooked into a big round pie – or a thinner slice. The pastry is made with white wine then rolled out, covered with a layer of softened onion, tomato and red peppers and topped with fish, most commonly tuna but I had it with fresh sardines, which was delicious. A mussel filling is not unusual either.

It tends to be served as one of a selection of shared plates that are brought out in a seemingly never-ending succession at the beginning of a meal. Galicians are nothing if not hospitable.

Where to eat in Galicia

Although Santiago is no San Sebastián, there are an impressive number of Michelin-rated restaurants in the region, along with some fantastic, family-run seafood restaurants.

Abastos 2.0, Santiago de Compostela

Based in the market, this is a Santiago institution, serving the best of what is on offer that day. It’s small, so you’ll need to book.

Bitadorna, Vigo

Traditional seafood restaurant that focuses on the best local ingredients such as lobster, red prawns and octopus. It has another branch in A Guarda.

Casa Boveda, Pontevedra

Homely, family-style restaurant serving traditional Galician dishes, including a splendid monkfish and potato stew that’s brought bubbling to the table.

Manuel Bistró, Monforte de Lemos

A well-priced bistro serving a selection of pasta and rice dishes and an €18 midweek lunch. Popular with local winemakers.

Yayo Daporta, Cambados

Exceptionally good food for a one-star Michelin restaurant, with clever twists on the local ingredients. Opt for the tasting menu and hope it includes the deconstructed crab croqueta.

Beyond seafood

Galicia is not just coast, though. Inland, in the regions of Ribeiro, Ribeira Sacra and Monterrei you’ll find much more meat. ‘Because of the abundance of outstanding seafood, I think a lot of people forget that Galicia is also home to some of the best beef in the country,’ says Beth Willard, DWWA joint Regional Chair for Spain, who visits the region regularly. It comes from grass-fed Rubia Gallega cattle, which are typically killed at 8-12 years – yes, that’s years, not months – and the meat develops a deep, savoury, almost gamey flavour. It’s made its way into many Spanish-influenced restaurants outside the region, too.

Pork is also hugely popular. The locals consume every bit of it – the ears, snout, trotters and tail. And being Spain, naturally there’s ham as well as chorizo and other charcuterie. ‘They can’t cure it like elsewhere in the country as it’s so wet, so it tends to be brined and smoked,’ explains Linton.

Even the simplest dishes are celebrated. ‘There are more than 300 gastronomic festivals in the Galicia region, with each town having its own celebration, such as the Fiesta del Cocido in Lalín [rather endearingly translated as a Stew Fair on the website fiestapopular.com],’ says Miguel Crunia of Fìon, an Edinburgh-based wine importer who was born and bred in the region and is a mine of information on Galicia. That seems a lot, I say to him. ‘I think it’s because people don’t tend to cook so much at home any more,’ he replies.

Local staples

Given the fertility of the region, vegetables also play a big part in the local cuisine, especially potatoes (or cachelos, as they’re known locally, typically served boiled) and turnip tops (grelos). One of the much-loved staples is caldo gallego, a soup with potatoes, beans and greens that from a Spanish point of view no doubt counts as vegetarian on the grounds of only including a minor amount of pork belly or bacon, more or less as seasoning. And who knew pimientos de padrón, a staple of almost every tapas bar these days, were Galician? (They originate from the town of Padrón in La Coruña.)

‘There are a lot of small farms and allotments, still in local hands and with a real attention to quality,’ says Linton. ‘We sell the Lourenzá faba beans, for example, which are grown by a mother and daughter who only produce 300 kilos a year. They’re amazing; they taste like clotted cream.’

Speaking of dairy, in contrast to the rest of Spain, the best-known cheeses are made from cows’ rather than sheep milk. They include the smoked San Simón da Costa and mild, semi-soft Tetilla.

As elsewhere in Spain, desserts tend to be simple, based on easily available ingredients such as eggs, sugar and almonds. The most famous is the almond-based tarta de Santiago, which generally has an image of the cross of St James outlined on the icing sugar-dusted top. It’s also worth looking out for a local cheesecake called tarta de requesón, pancakes (filloas) and cream-filled cañitas, Galicia’s answer to Sicily’s cannoli (and very delicious with the local liquor, Cumbre Iberica Licore Tostada, which they serve at Casa Boveda).

‘A lot of the desserts still use chestnut flour,’ explains Linton. ‘Chestnuts were survival food for a lot of people.’

But it’s the seafood she keeps coming back to. ‘It’s the cold, rough water, the mixture of saline and fresh water that makes it so incredible. It’s not just shellfish, it’s wow shellfish!’

Eat like a Galician

The most distinctive dish in Galicia is simplicity itself – apart from the daunting task of tenderising your octopus, which is most easily done by freezing it, although the locals say it’s better when you cook it from fresh. It’s served with cachelos (potatoes), with good oil and dried pimentón completing the dish. Here’s a simple version from Monika Linton’s Brindisa: The True Food of Spain. ‘Octopus from Galicia is unbelievably good compared to what you buy elsewhere,’ she says.

Octopus Galician-style

Serves 6-8

Preparation time 10 minutes Cooking time 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients 2 carrots, 2 shallots, 4 peppercorns, about 400g raw, frozen octopus pieces, 200g whole baby potatoes, 1 tbsp pimentón dulce (mild paprika), 3-4 tbsp olive oil, for drizzling, pinch of sea salt (optional)

Method

1. Bring a pan of water to the boil, add the carrots, shallots and peppercorns, put in the octopus, turn down to a simmer and leave to cook gently for 40-45 minutes, until tenderised (check by pricking the chunky parts of the tentacles).

2. Lift out with a slotted spoon, and cut the tentacles into 1cm slices.

3. Reserve the pan of cooking water but discard the vegetables and peppercorns.

4. Cook the potatoes in the same water for 20-25 minutes, or until just tender, then cut in half lengthways and arrange in a serving dish with the octopus slices on top.

5. Sprinkle with the pimentón and drizzle with olive oil and a light scattering of sea salt, if you like (remember, though, that octopus will be quite salty).

Brindisa: The True Food of Spain by Monika Linton was published in September 2016 (£15 Fourth Estate)

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Chief executive Víctor Urrutia said the purchase would boost the company’s prospects of becoming Spain’s ‘most important winery’.

Bodegas La Val is based in Salvaterra de Miño, which is located in the Condado do Tea sub-region of the Rías Baixas Denominación de Origen.

The winery was founded in 1985, and it was the driving force behind the creation of the Rías Baixas DO three years later.

La Val is renowned for its pioneering work in promoting Albariño on a global basis, and it also grows two other native varieties: Loureiro and Treixadura.

The vineyards straddle the banks of the Miño river, which give the wines their unique characteristics. They include the 35ha Arantei Estate, the 13ha Taboexa vineyard and the 5ha Porto vineyard.

It has 90ha under vine in total, according to CVNE, and it only produces wines from its own grapes.

Exports account for 70% of sales at La Val, which was run by Fernando Bandeira and Antonio Ruiloba until this sale to CVNE.

The Rioja-based group – whose full name is Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España – already has operations in Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Valdeorras and D.O. Cava, so Rías Baixas was a natural expansion.

Its wineries include CVNE, Imperial, Viña Real and Viñedos del Contino in Rioja, Roger Goulart in Penedés, Bela in Ribera del Duero, and Virgen del Galir in Valdeorras. Each estate produces a different style of wine from distinct terroir.

Urrutia said: ‘CVNE is a national treasure and our objective is to be Spain’s most important winery. Buying La Val will help us consolidate this objective.’

CVNE is still run by the descendants of founders Eusebio and Raimundo Real de Asúa, who established the business in 1879.

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The rain in Spain falls mainly in Galicia. OK, that’s an exaggeration. There are other parts of the country that are wet – the coast of the Basque country, for instance – but when I visit, Spain’s Atlantic northwest corner always seems to be under a damp duvet of clouds.

Santiago de Compostela, the most famous city in the region, is one of the two wettest in Spain (according to Aemet data, 1981-2010), along with San Sebastián.

Following close behind are Pontevedra, A Coruña and Vigo, all of them in Galicia. The southern viticultural regions of Condado do Tea and O Rosal, located on the border with Portugal, are certainly warmer and drier, but we’re not talking La Mancha.

No wonder Galicians consider morriña (melancholy) to be part of their DNA.

Scroll down to see Tim Atkin’s 1o Rías Baixas wines to try

Climate change is affecting Galicia, of course – with the exception of the late-picked 2021 growing season, recent harvests have been hotter and (relatively speaking) drier – but this is still a cool, drizzly place to grow grapes.

Organic viticulture may be inadvisable because of the risk of vineyard diseases, but the prevailing conditions are well suited to the production of the fresh, tangy white wines that have made Galicia’s name over the last couple of decades, especially with Albariño in its best sub-region, the Val do Salnés.

Ancient history

Albariño – known as Alvarinho in nearby Portugal, where it is one of the mainstays of Vinho Verde – has been in Galicia for a very long time. It was definitely here when the Romans arrived and quite possibly before that, if recent archaeological finds in the city of Vigo are a reliable guide. Albariño, you see, has thick skin, which is useful in a wet region, and good levels of natural acidity that are the perfect foil for the local seafood.

It’s hard to think of another white grape that has enjoyed such success over the last two decades. Italian Pinot Grigio perhaps, but Albariño has greater cachet and higher prices, and is a superior variety. The curious thing is that Albariño was virtually unknown, even in its home from home, 50 years ago. ‘In the 1970s, the main grape was red Espadeiro,’ says Eulogio Pomares of Zárate. ‘In fact, 80% of the vineyards were red.’ Albariño was almost insignificant, with just 200ha under vine. Today, the grape accounts for a whopping 4,086ha.

What changed its fortunes? Once the Rías Baixas Denominación de Origen was created in 1988, Galicians began to realise the appeal of Albariño. It had always had its fans – the annual festival dedicated to the grape in the town of Cambados dates back to the early 1950s – but they were in a minority. Little by little, Albariño began to establish a reputation as a world-class variety: one with ageing potential, too. Pazo de Señorans, in particular, specialises in bottle-matured versions of the grape with its Selecciones de Añada, of which the current release is the 2013. Most Albariño is drunk young – it can legally be sold from the point in November when the DO control body validates the vintage, typically around the 20th – but the majority of those drinkers are missing out on one of its greatest assets.

Rías Baixas at a glance

DO Established 1988, the largest of Galicia’s five DOs. (The others are Monterrei, Ribeiro, Ribeira Sacra and Valdeorras)

Region Part of so-called ‘green Spain’, located in the northwest corner of the country. A region of high rainfall, especially in the north, with rivers, estuaries and, of course, the Atlantic coast

Major cities A Coruña and Vigo; Santiago de Compostela, also famous as a pilgrimage destination

Planted area 4,329ha – divided between five very different sub-zones: Val do Salnés (the biggest), Condado do Tea, O Rosal, Soutomaior and Ribeira do Ulla

Soils Mostly granite with some clay, gravel, sand and schist

Wineries The region has 179 bodegas, 5,011 growers and a remarkable 22,832 individual plots, many of which are tiny

Annual production About 37.3m bottles

Grapes Mostly Albariño (94% of plantings). The remainder is made up of (whites) Caíño Blanco, Godello, Loureira Blanca, Torrontés and Treixadura; (reds) Brancellao, Caíño Tinto, Castañal, Loureira Tinta, Mencía, Pedral and Sousón

[Source: DO Rías Baixas, 2022]

What about the reds?

Albariño may be the star turn in these parts, with more than 94% of Rías Baixas’ 4,329ha, but the region has a supporting cast, too, some of which are only grown in this northwest corner of the Iberian peninsula: Caíño Blanco, Godello, Loureira, Treixadura and Torrontés. Standalone examples of these grapes are rare, but two of the region’s five sub regions – O Rosal and Condado de Tea – specialise in blends. Albariño generally partners well with other grapes, especially Loureira and Treixadura.

The region’s reds also deserve a mention. Often rare grapes such as Brancellao, Caíño Tinto, Castañal, Espadeiro, Mencía and Pedral account for only 1.2% of plantings, but for me, they are some of the most distinctive Spanish tintos: tangy, bright, elegant and thirst-quenching, with more presence and structure than you might imagine. If you love the wines of DOs Ribeira Sacra and Bierzo (the latter just over the border in the Castilla y León region), you’ll adore these.

No one seems in a rush to plant more red vineyards, partly because yields are about one third of those of Albariño, but climate change has made it much easier to produce good wines every year. ‘We’re picking two weeks earlier than we were 15 years ago,’ says Paco Arenas of Señorío de Rubios, one of 26 bodegas that make red wines. Apart from Señorío de Rubios, other red producers to look out for are Albamar, Attis, Zárate and especially Forjas del Salnés, where Rodri Méndez works with Bierzo superstar Raúl Pérez.

Know your vintages: Rías Baixas

2022 Unusually hot, dry vintage, with some welcome rains just before harvest, which added volume and freshness to the grapes. Potential quality outstanding.

2021 A very cool vintage, with low temperatures in the summer that barely touched 30°C. Alcohols lower than in recent vintages, with marked acidity in some wines. Quality mixed.

2020 The Covid vintage. Botrytis in some vineyards and reasonably warm. Ripe, full-flavoured wines with balancing acidity in the best

areas, especially the Val do Salnés.

2019 Dry vintage with above- average temperatures. Yields were lower than usual, producing wines that are generally ripe and concentrated.

2018 A cool, humid spring, late flowering. A late vintage of good rather than spectacular quality that was saved by August sunshine.

2017 Early flowering followed by a typical summer of moderate to warm temperatures. Overall crop comparatively large. Decent quality.

Shape shifter

I’m a huge fan of these reds, but there’s no denying the celebrity of Rías Baixas is tied to Albariño. Wine drinkers imagine that it’s reassuringly predictable, but it’s actually protean, capable of many different expressions. There are several important influences. One is soil type: as well as predominant granite, the region’s vineyards contain lesser percentages of sand and schist, among other things, which affect the structure of resulting wines. Water is a second crucial factor, and not just rainfall. How close they are to the Atlantic, or to one of the four estuaries (rías) after which the DO is named, tends to increase freshness and salinity in whites as well as reds. And then there are things such as sunshine hours, altitude (never very high, but there are variations), aspect and picking dates.

It’s possible to manipulate Albariño in the bodega, too. The style favoured by most winemakers is temperature-controlled stainless steel fermentation, usually with lees contact for texture. But open your eyes as you walk around a few cellars, and you can see a range of containers: foudres, concrete tanks, flexitanks, even granite eggs, patented by local producer Santiago Roma and hewn from the local bedrock. Also relevant is the use of malolactic fermentation – widely used to soften the sometimes tart 2021s – as well as pressing cycles on a grape with such thick skins.

Albariño’s only problem – and it’s a nice one – is that it’s almost too popular. Could it become a victim of its own success? Volumes have grown tenfold over the last 30 years. The worry is that demand will outstrip supply. No wonder the region’s 5,011 grape growers look so happy, as the majority of the 179 bodegas buy grapes from them. Prices are spiralling upwards, at least for now, and have risen steeply since 2019 to a high for some producers of €3.20 per kilogram in 2022. Is this sustainable? In the current economic climate, it’s a pressing question.

Eight Rías Baixas names to know

Albamar

Xurxo Alba makes an impressive range of reds and whites from his family’s 8ha in Cambados, as well as purchased grapes. The top wine is Sesenta

y Nove Arrobas, an ageworthy, unwooded, old-vine Albariño from five parcels, but the reds, especially the Espadeiro and Mencía are worth a detour. @albamarbodegas

Attis

Brothers Robustiano and Baldomero Fariña farm mussels as well as 13ha of vineyards in the Val do Salnés. The range is extensive and reliably good, including the best orange wine in the region, Sitta Doliola, as well as an extensive line-up of thirst-quenching varietal reds made from Brancellao, Caíño Tinto, Espadeiro and Pedral.

Forjas del Salnes

If anyone qualifies as a cult winemaker in Rías Baixas, then it’s arguably self-effacing Rodri Méndez, who has benefited from the advice of Bierzo’s superstar producer, Raúl Pérez, when it comes to his reds (Goliardo is a total bargain). The Leirana Areas de Arra Albariño, sourced from a single parcel on ‘beach sand’ is among Spain’s greatest whites. @bodegaforjasdelsalnes

Lagar de Costa

The brother and sister team of Manuel and Sonia Costa have taken this small family winery in Castrelo to new heights. Their 7ha are Atlantic-influenced – one of them is just 15 metres from the waves – and produce wines of stony, saline intensity. The pick of the range is the single-vineyard Calabobos, named after the persistent Galician drizzle.

Palacio de Fefiñanes

Located on the main square in Cambados, Fefiñanes was the first bodega to bottle a varietal Albariño back in 1928. Grapes are sourced almost exclusively from local growers and quality is high. The best-seller is Albariño de Fefiñanes, but Cristina Mantilla also makes a barrel-aged white (1583) and the salty, long-lived III Año.

Pazo de Señorans

Very much a winery with a female touch – Ana Quintela is the winemaker and Marisol Bueno the owner and the DO’s first president in 1988 – Pazo de Señorans is a textbook Albariño producer. The most interesting wine here is the Selección de Añada, from 4ha of old vines on slopes, which is generally released after a decade in bottle.

Santiago Roma

Less well known than he should be, Santiago Roma farms just 6ha in Ribadumia. Everything he makes is delicious, from his Colleita to his estate Albariño to his Selección. But the most exciting and unusual wine here is Pedranai, fermented and lees-aged in a specially designed granite egg. There are only 600 bottles, alas, but it’s stunning.

Zarate

Eulogio Pomares began making wine with his aunts and the chef de cave of Zárate’s distinguished late founder Ernesto Zárate. Pomares studied oenology

in Bordeaux, returning to Galicia for the 1999 harvest and taking full charge from 2000. With a profound knowledge of the history of Rías Baixas, he and his wife Rebecca make a brilliant range of whites and reds from 12 parcels covering 10ha. My favourites are two of their single-vineyard Albariños: Tras da Viña and the richer El Palomar.

Atkin’s Atlantic 10: a taste of Rías Baixas

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Inside the February 2023 issue of Decanter magazine:

FEATURES

• Spain travel: glorious day trips for wine lovers Shawn Hennessey suggests 10 days out from five cities
• Rioja Gran Reserva: my top 20 Sarah Jane Evans MW’s selection
• Regional profile: Rías Baixas With Tim Atkin MW in Galicia
• Six from Spain: regions, dishes and wines A tour of gastronomic delights, with David Williams
• Catalonia’s exciting winemakers 14 names pushing winemaking boundaries, by Darren Smith
• Vintage preview: northern Rhône 2021 Matt Walls tastes and reports
• Selling your wine Invaluable sales guidance from Chris Losh

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• Wine wisdom Expert tips to help you on your journey through wine

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SPIRITS

• Distilled Spirits, cocktails, insight – plus five top premium vodkas
• Dark rum revolution Neil Ridley

SERBIA 2023 GUIDE: A sponsored supplement

• Today’s Serbia Around the country’s wine regions
• Wines to savour An array of styles: 15 of Serbia’s finest
• Belgrade: where to eat, drink and shop By Igor Lukovic

BUYING GUIDE

• Editors’ picks Recent tasting highlights from Decanter staff
• Panel tasting: Priorat reds Rating nine wines Outstanding, judges loved their regional authenticity
• Panel tasting: Albariño beyond Iberia Some high scores for these fresh international white wines
• Expert’s choice: the Canary Islands David Williams’ 18 picks
• Weekday wines 25 top wines under £20 chosen by the Decanter team
• Weekend wines Priced £20-£50, seven standout buys to impress

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• Guest column: Fred Sirieix How to convince more consumers to buy English sparkling wine
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Galicia is the wettest region in all of Spain with average rainfall starting from 800mm in the driest areas all the way up to 2,200mm for those along the Atlantic coast.

Given this concern, fungal issues in the vineyards are quite common and viticulture has been adapted accordingly, for example with vines being trained to pergolas or by higher trellising which allows for good air circulation. In addition, the use of antifungal chemical treatments is widespread to contend with issues such as Esca, Petri and Black foot disease.

Talking to Decanter, Javier Peláez, the owner of Bodegas Marqués de Vizhoja said, ‘It’s been this heavy reliance on chemicals which was one of the reasons that we’ve been investigating alternative treatments for the vineyards that don’t rely on chemicals and are ultimately more sustainable.’

This new line of research has seen them introduce spent coffee grounds in the vineyards as one of several potential methods to thwart fungal development and maintain health in the wood of the vines.

Peláez said, ‘It’s an exercise in circular economy: the waste from coffee machines is given value again by being used in our vineyards, creating a cross-economy link between Galician companies in addition to the sustainability aspect.’

They’ve been working with Galician coffee producer, Verdadero c.a.f.e. whose director, Gustavo Cascón, said that they collected 900kg of spent grounds for the initial phase of the project.

There have been trials in an orchard located in the town of Arteixo where they’ve used coffee grounds purely as a fertiliser. But now in 2022 they’ve started in the vineyards and will see it run as a trial for the next three years, in three different plots of Albariño grapes. In total Marqués de Vizhoja has 40ha, which are primarily Albariño but additionally Loureiro and Treixadura, other varieties traditional to the region.

In addition to working to minimise chemical intervention, Peláez told Decanter, ‘Our grandparents would use coffee historically in our gardens as a fertiliser and so we’re working to bring a bit of the past into the present and see if we can improve upon it to the benefit of our vines.’

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Torres is best known for producing wines across Spanish regions including Catalunya, Rioja and Ribera del Duero. It also has an international presence with Miguel Torres in Chile and Marimar in Sonoma, California, but for more than a decade it has been producing wines in Galicia too. This aspect of its portfolio started with the purchase of a 6ha vineyard in the Salnés subregion, producing the upmarket wine Blanco Granito based on Rías Baixas’ star variety, Albariño. The wine is made from a unique process, so far in a small cellar near the vineyard, using granite eggs for vinification.

Additionally, Torres has the larger-production Rías Baixas label of Pazo das Bruxas (also Albariño), but, as company director, Miguel Torres Maczassek told Decanter, ‘This small winery we’ve been using wasn’t large enough for the production of Pazo das Bruxas and our enologists had requested a larger space for additional control in winemaking as well as the potential to grow production down the line.’

The 3,000m² winery of Valdamor is currently an active cellar but Torres is planning for large renovations of the facility to be fully implemented by the start of the 2022 harvest. Winemaking will continue to be headed by Víctor Cortizo, who has overseen the Galician project since 2017 and is part of what Torres Maczassek said had been ‘a consolidation of our project in Rías Baixas over the past 10 years.’

This purchase marks something of a change for Torres, which more typically constructs new cellars to meet their needs with a strong focus on being eco-friendly as well as self-sufficient in terms of energy. It’s a focus that led to Torres founding the International Wineries for Climate Action in 2019 along with Jackson Family Wines in the United States. When asked the reason behind the purchase of Bodegas Valdamor, Torres Maczassek told Decanter, ‘It provided us with a more immediate manner to meet our needs once the renovations are completed.’

In addition to the Valdamor winery purchase and renovations, Torres will plant a 6ha vineyard in the subzone of Ribeira do Ulla and an additional 8ha in Salnés Valley in 2023. This will provide the company with a total 20ha of Albariño.

Torres Maczassek confirmed to Decanter that, ‘We believe heavily in the region and are very focused in growing the Pazo das Bruxas wine. Once everything is realised, we’ll have invested seven million Euros in the Galician project to date.’

Torres’ confidence in Galicia and its Albariño wines is well placed. For 2021, sales of Rías Baixas (where Albariño comprises 85% of the vineyards) to the United States increased 20% in volume and 33% in terms of value. The UK saw the variety and region’s profile rise as well with a 7% increase in volume and 15% increase in value.

All told, the Albariño wines from Rías Baixas are proving to be strong contenders in an international wine market that’s historically been dominated by white wines from the Loire Valley and New Zealand. At the same time, it’s proving via the rise in value figures that the concept of Spanish wine just being a ‘good price’ is no longer the country’s sole unique selling point.

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Vega Sicilia’s announcement of its project in Galicia brings an end to months of industry speculation over where exactly the company would make its first Spanish white wines.

Spanish daily newspapers El País and Cinco Días revealed news of the construction of a new winery and the acquisition of 24 hectares of vineyards by Vega Sicilia, owned by the Álvarez family.

Vega Sicilia confirmed that production would initially consist of two white wines: Deiva, a white Crianza (aged 2 years); and Arnela, a premium wine (aged for 3 years).

Both wines are expected to be released in 2025.

The producer said that its aim was to make 300,000 bottles of white wines annually, primarily focused on the white grape variety Albariño.

Vega Sicilia told El País that it had acquired 24 hectares of vineyards in several areas of the Rías Baixas, including Condado de Tea, surrounding the Miño river and in Crecente, near the border with Portugal, where the company will build the new winery named Deiva.

It said the Albariño grape variety could produce high-end Spanish white wines.

The decision to invest in the green, Atlantic reaches of Spain is unsurprising considering the climatic challenges, including drought, faced by Spanish producers in areas further south of the country.

Based in Spain’s Ribera del Duero, Vega Sicilia also makes wine in the Spanish regions of Rioja, Toro, and in Hungary.

Business newspaper Cinco Días said on 7 February that Vega Sicilia made profits of €30m (£25.3m) in 2021, from a turnover of €60m.

Vega Sicilia declined to comment further on the announcement.

Originally founded in 1864, Vega Sicilia was acquired by the Álvarez family in 1982, and the family is planning to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the purchase this year. 

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Wine Legend: Vega Sicilia, Unico 1964

Galicia is famous for its white wines: pure, elegant, lees-aged, unoaked or only lightly so. The leader of the charge has been the Rías Baixas DO – and its Albariño grape in particular – followed by Ribeiro, and the Godellos of Valdeorras. Producers from Rioja and Ribera del Duero looking for a white companion to their reds find Galicia a happy hunting ground.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 20 top Galician red wines

Albariño still accounts for 96% of Rías Baixas’ output. In Valdeorras, red Mencía is now almost neck and neck with Godello in production terms. It’s in Ribeira Sacra that red dominates. Galicia always had red vines.

However, they had been widely ignored in the recent stampede to feed the world’s appetite for the region’s whites. Fortunately, things are changing.

There’s a glorious portfolio of reds to discover. What unites them is a very distinct Atlantic acidity.

It won’t be to everyone’s taste. But if you enjoy the wines of the Loire, or crunchy northern Italian reds, or fine Greek Xinomavro, then take a look. Expertise in managing the vineyards is developing rapidly. As we learn to live with increasingly hot summers, these crisply refreshing reds with their lower alcohols are a treat.

Above all, they are originals. Here’s a chance to try Espadeiro, Caíño Tinto, Caíño Longo and Merenzao. The latter, also known in the Iberian peninsula as María Ordoña and Bastardo, is one variety that has travelled – as Jura’s Trousseau.

Many of the wines are pale in colour, but that does not mean they are lacking in flavour. Far from it, in fact. What’s more, the joy of these reds is that they are not masked by new oak. Clearly, that’s partly for financial reasons [time spent in oak barrels increases production costs]. But it’s also explained by producers not wanting to interfere with the subtlety of the wines.

Simply reds

With this top 20 selection of wines, I looked to represent every DO, producers who prefer not to belong to a DO, and a range of key people. Where to begin the tasting journey? Roberto Durán, twice voted Spain’s top sommelier – and senior sommelier at London’s 67 Pall Mall wine club – is in no doubt: Monterrei.

This is Galicia’s most southerly DO, the least known and least highly rated. Red wines count for less than half of production, but the best are exceptional. Mencía dominates (more than 80%). Other red varieties recognised include Merenzao, Araúxa (Tempranillo), Caíño Tinto and Sousón (the Vinhão of Portugal, just over the border).

To start, let’s consider José Luis Mateo at Quinta da Muradella. Here, as elsewhere among Galicia’s reds, the wines are as much about the people who make them as about the grape or the soil. Mateo’s wines are an ideal introduction.

Moving north, the precipitous vineyards of Ribeira Sacra, the essence of heroic viticulture, shelter a wide range of varieties, including Brancellao, Caíños Longo and Bravo, Mouratón, Tempranillo, Gran Negro and Garnacha. ‘Garnacha’ in this region may also mean Garnacha Tintorera or Alicante Bouschet, traditionally prized as a ‘teinturier’ for the way it lends deep colour to wines.

Ribeira Sacra is the only DO in Galicia where red prevails (more than three-quarters of production). Viticulture has improved greatly in the last 20 years. So too has packaging – a sign that producers now have an eye to export.

A century of phylloxera, depression, civil war and dictatorship took its toll across Spain, and revival was slow. In Ribeira Sacra, Fernando Algueira was one of the pioneers recuperating the steep terraces and ancient varieties. His son Fabio has now joined the business, and their single varieties are a good place to start exploring the potential of the region.

The most continental of the Galician DOs is Valdeorras. Though renowned for its Godello, the proportion of reds (and particularly Mencía) is catching up. In Ribeiro, reds form about 15% of the output, which is why it’s so exciting to have a new red in this tasting from the master of whites: Emilio Rojo. In Rías Baixas, meanwhile, whites didn’t always prevail. Eulogio Pomares and Rodri Méndez are among those leading the revival.

Hovering over a number of these elegant wines in Galicia is the benign influence of Raúl Pérez (from Bierzo by birth), who has guided them in the search for individuality. Many of these are gastronomic wines – when matched with food, their crispness cuts through cheffy richness. However, the restaurant closures of the past 18 months due to Covid-19 have affected availability of these wines, and that’s why many of the suppliers listed are importers.

Some specialist restaurants are importing wine directly, notably Ultracomida and L’Oculto. I have my eye on the latter’s adorably named Enthusiasmus: ‘A blend of Sousón, Caíño, Garnacha, Brancellao, Pedralonga, Espadeiro. Fermented together in chestnut barrels, then aged in Galician oak barrels. Must serve chilled.’

Not for everyone, perhaps. But for an enthusiast like me? I can’t wait.

Discover Galician red wines: Sarah Jane Evans MW’s top 20

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Made in Rías Baixas in northern Spain’s Galicia, Albariño is a crisp white wine with signature freshness. Boasting vibrant acidity and salty Atlantic notes, it’s a great match for seafood. Albariño is usually drunk young, but a recent tasting of older expressions set out to prove that actually this is a grape that can be aged successfully.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for seven aged Abariño wines worth seeking out

From a total of just over 4,000ha of vineyards in DO Rías Baixas, 96% is planted to Albariño, with 5,131 growers working in the region. Characterised by its granite soils, it’s a region of small vineyard plots boasting about 20,000 individual sites.

The importance of selecting particular plots to produce ageworthy wines emerged as a theme during the tasting, as seven Rías Baixas producers joined us via Zoom. They showcased bottles from 2019 all the way back to 2010. Old vines were also seen as key to ageability, producing fewer grapes but with more intensity of flavour.

Vintage variation

Vintage quality also plays a role. Diego Ríos Muñoz, winemaker at Agro de Bazán, explains: ‘Though our main production is focused on fresh, young Albarinos, the winery had always had reference wines that stay longer in the cellar, and they go later on the market. We don’t do it every year – just in those vintages where we are very happy with the quality.’

He looks for ‘really healthy grapes’, with no botrytis and the perfect balance of alcohol and acidity. But he adds: ‘It’s a very long process. It’s not just the moment of the harvest. It’s also the evolution afterwards in the cellar.’

Just 10,000 bottles of his Gran Bazán Don Alvaro de Bazán 2018 were produced. It spent two years on lees and one in bottle in the cellar before release. As Ríos Muñoz noted, this extra time allows notes of ‘ripe fruit, papaya, white chocolate, even a little bit of tobacco’ to develop, producing ‘a completely different aspect of the variety’.

He added: ‘These aged Albariños are so beautiful because they can compete internationally with varieties like Chenin Blanc or Riesling.’

Lees ageing

Extended time on full or fine lees was a signature of many other bottles in the tasting. This lees ageing adds body and texture to the wines, giving a creaminess that helps to balance the natural acidity of the Albariño grape.

Katia Alvarez, winemaker at Martín Códax, began producing a lees-aged Albariño – Martín Códax Lías – in 2005. After a cool pressing ‘to maintain all the concentration that we have in the grapes’, she starts to work with the lees after fermentation. ‘We increase the quantity of the lees that the wine has, based on lees that we have in the winery. We select lees which are going to concentrate on bringing the nose [aromas].’

After two months of battonage with the additional lees, the wine spends a further 10 months in stainless steel tanks on fine lees. ‘I’m looking for the integration between the flavours that come from the lees and also the flavours from the varietal,’ explains Alvarez.

She explains that for her the Martín Códax Lías 2018 typifies Rías Baixas. ‘We have the creamy notes from the lees, but also an obvious saltiness… some minerality, some spiciness. For me what makes the wine different is the mouthfeel. It’s an example of the potential that Albariño has,’ she added.

Oak influence?

While most of the winemakers ferment and age Albariño in stainless steel, Juan Posada of Viñas e Adegas Galegas ferments in oak. His Adegas Galegas Veigadares 2017 has a backbone of Albariño – sourced from three separate plots in the sub-regions of Salnes Valley, Condado do Tea and O Rosal.

However Posada also includes other native Spanish grapes in the blend: Loureira, Treixadura and Caiño Blanco. Each variety (including the Albariño) is fermented separately in 2,500-litre French oak foudres. ‘We play with different oaks,’ explains Posada, who is looking for increased complexity and ageing potential.

His 2017 wine had some lovely evolved savoury aromas and flavours, all cut through with vibrant acidity. However it was the final wine of the tasting, a library vintage of Pazo de Señoráns Selección de Añada 2010, that really stood out in terms of complexity.

Better with time

‘We’ve always believed in the ageing potential of the Albariño grape,’says Pazo de Señoráns winemaker Vicky Mareque. ‘So in 1995 we made the first vintage of this wine from a single plot, which is called Los Bancales. It’s one of our oldest vineyards, with some vines up to 100 years, but the average age is 55 years.’

Spending up to 38 months on its lees in stainless steel, with further time ageing in tank, then in bottle before release, this is a wine that exemplifies the complexity of aged Albariño. The 2010 vintage was bottled three years ago.

‘The 2010 is quite full-bodied but it’s still quite fresh,’ says Mareque. ‘They acidity is nice, it’s pretty mineral, but we start to see the tertiary aromas and flavours.’

As Sarah Jane Evans MW, DWWA Co-Chair and author of The Wines of Northern Spain, noted in a recent panel tasting of Albariño versus Alvarinho (the Portuguese name for the grape): ‘The best Albariños age beautifully – it is well worth seeking them out.’ Fellow taster Sarah Ahmed agreed: ‘I have tasted Alvarinhos that have been 10 to 20 years old, and they have aged really well.’

While young Albariños should be drunk within four years of release, examples that are made for ageing, such as the wines below, will happily mature in bottle for five to 10 years in your home cellar. Fans of aged white styles certainly shouldn’t ignore Albariño…

Aged Abariño: seven to try

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Origins of Albariño – Ask Decanter

Albariño is the best-known ambassador for Galician grapes. But Galicia is much more than Albariño. In fact, the region is a heartland for a large number of highly distinctive wines made from several different grape varieties.

One might wonder why these Galician wines aren’t yet widely known. There are two reasons. Firstly, Galicia was a poor and isolated region throughout the 20th century, with no resources to produce high-quality wines, and emigration a major concern. Secondly, land holdings in Galicia are extremely small – less than 1ha per holding in many areas. On this scale, quality winemaking was almost impossible.

Today, however, an increasing number of highly skilled young professionals are dedicated to demonstrating the potential of Galician terroirs and grape varieties. Wines of high quality and uniqueness have come to the fore, albeit in very limited quantities.

Godello is the new Galician star. Rescued by Horacio Fernández Presa, an official who launched a development programme for the region in the 1970s, it came to international fame thanks to Rafael Palacios. Now, it is the base of some of the greatest wines in Spain, mainly in Valdeorras, but also in Monterrei, Ribeira Sacra and, outside Galicia, in Bierzo. Godello is very demanding in terms of viticulture and winemaking, and needs ageing in order to free its essence. The best wines improve with bottle age, offering amazing textures and unmatched class.

Treixadura is dominant in Ribeiro. Bringing aromatic, grassy notes with crisp acidity, it’s at its best when blended with Albariño, Lado, Loureira, Torrontés and other varieties. Ribeiro is all about terroir. In my opinion, it is the region with the highest potential in Spain (incidentally, its capital, Ribadavia, gave its name to one of the most appreciated wines in England in the 17th century).

In Rías Baixas, the Caíño Blanco grape makes a very interesting alternative to Albariño in its heartland. Rescued by Terras Gauda, the variety is less aromatic than Albariño, but sleeker and of firm acidity.

Until three years ago, Blanco Lexitimo was dismissed by winemakers due to a perceived insufficient genetic quality, which was mostly down to difficult ripening. However, sound viticulture, lower yields and professional winemaking have brought the variety to the world of fine wine.

Another rarity is Doña Blanca, known in Toro as Malvasía de Toro, and brought into the limelight by José Luis Mateo from Monterrei. Not very aromatic, it tends to be creamy and long. Definitely one to look out for.

There are other white (and red) varieties in Galicia with huge potential, such as Loureira and Torrontés, and some of those will hopefully rise to fame in the near future.

In my view, Galicia’s most valuable asset is its capacity to release highly distinctive wines of unmatched quality. The realisation of terroir diversity and impressive varieties, together with some smart winemaking, should end centuries of oblivion and emigration for the region. Watch this space.

Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW’s top 20 Galicia wines

Leading Albariño producer, Mar de Frades, has launched its first 100% Godello wine from coastal vineyards in Rías Baixas, Galicia, in the northwest corner of Spain.

‘I decided to make a Godello wine because it’s an indigenous variety from Galicia, but there was little known about growing this variety next to the Atlantic,’ said winemaker Paula Fandiño.

‘Galician Godellos are produced inland, not by the sea, so I thought it would be something special.’

Scroll down for the tasting note and score of the wine

Traditionally, Albariño vineyards dominate the area, with the variety accounting for 96% of all plantings – though small quantities of other native grapes, including Treixadura, Loureiro, Torrontes and Godello are also planted throughout Rías Baixas.

Fandiño is known for her experimental approach to winemaking – including extended periods of lees ageing for her Albariños, using the Ganimede Method of cold maceration and introducing the first granite vats to the region – and saw the creation of a Godello wine as another chance to innovate.

‘Godello is a very delicate white variety, therefore, the fermentation must be at a higher temperature than for Albariño, to get fresh and more tropical flavours,’ she said.

‘The big difference compared to our Mar de Frades Albariño is the work on lees, with a long process of batonnage for six months. Then, we keep the wine on its lees for another eight months and finally it spends two months in French oak barrels before bottling. After bottling, we keep the wine for six months in the winery before releasing it.’

Launched in the distinctive Mar de Frades blue glass bottle, the inaugural 2016 vintage of Godello is already something of a rarity. Extremely limited production means that only 2,100 bottles are available in the UK and Spain.

The 2017 and 2018 Mar de Frades Godellos have already been planned for release, though Fandiño is unsure whether she has started a new trend.

‘Godello is not as popular as Albariño, and is usually blended with other local white grapes. We are the first to launch this Atlantic Godello, but maybe in the future we will see some others!’

There’s much more to these northern Spanish wines than just Albariño, says Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW, who looks at the five main regions and their key varieties...

Most consumers associate Galicia with the Albariño grape from Ríax Baixas. Understandable, given Albariño’s success in the international market, but this singular view is far from the reality in this diverse region.

Galicia has a remarkable grape heritage that is structured around Albariño and two other key white varieties, Treixadura and Godello, but includes at least 15 other native grapes.

Indeed, Albariño is a parvenu in historic terms. Galician wines were imported and highly appreciated in the United Kingdom as long ago as the 14th century. These were not just from Albariño but a blend of varieties cultivated further inland in the Ribeiro denomination, including Treixadura, Loureiro, Godello, Torrontés and Lado.

Quick Link: View all 96 wines from this panel tasting

Such was the fame of those wines that, in 1579, the local government of Ribadavia set up a law to prevent frauds, protecting the wines’ indication of origin and accepted winemaking practices. Ribeiro was arguably the world’s first wine appellation.

Scroll down to see the results

Revival of the fittest

The dominant variety in Ribeiro is Treixadura. Forty years ago it was almost extinct, being replaced by the neutral and productive Palomino from Jerez, but thanks to a revival, it is now the flagship for the region.

Treixadura offers refined aromas, balanced acidity and, in the best terroirs, a complex, multi-layered finish. It is most often blended with Albariño and other varieties, rendering wines that often express an origin rather than varietal character.

Going inland within Galicia, where the climate is markedly more continental, Albariño and Treixadura become less relevant in blends, with Godello taking the lead role in the wines of Ribeira Sacra and Monterrei.

Once in Valdeorras, bordering Castilla y León, Godello becomes the almost exclusive variety. In 1974 Godello looked set to disappear – just 200 vines were left in Valdeorras. Thankfully, a research programme launched by Horacio Fernández saved it from extinction, and put Valdeorras back on the fine wine map.

A few years later, Rafael Palacios and other quality-minded producers surprised national and international markets with their Godellos of amazing finesse. Now the variety is widely planted in Ribeira Sacra and Monterrei too, where it gives rounder wines.

Other grape varieties play an increasingly interesting role on the Galician scene. Loureiro is distinguished because of its aromatic appeal; Caíño Blanco, a recent discovery by Terras Gauda, gives amazing minerality; and Doña Blanca, quite neutral, becomes very attractive in the hands of a few experts. Torrontés (nothing to do with the Argentinian Torrontés), Lado and Verdejo are other promising varieties.

The scores

96 wines tasted

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their latest-release wines made from Galician grapes (excluding 100% Albariño) and blends (including no more than 50% Albariño) from the DOs of Monterrei, Rías Baixas, Ribeira Sacra, Ribeiro and Valdeorras

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 5

Highly Recommended 32

Recommended 52

Commended 6

Fair 1

Poor 0

Faulty 0

The results

Consumers should look beyond Albariño to Galicia’s other indigenous grapes, said our experts, who enthused over these fresh, delicate whites. Amy Wislocki reports:

Albariño is without doubt Galicia’s calling card when it comes to white wines – or wines in general, for that matter. But it’s time that wine lovers discovered the other varied whites from this region, urged our tasters.

‘We had a taste of Galicia stand at a consumer event recently, where we showed two Albariños, a white from Ribeiro and a red from Ribeira Sacra,’ said Beth Willard, a buyer for Direct Wines. ‘It was great to be able to use the success of Albariño, and customer knowledge of that grape, to encourage them to try the white Ribeiro – and they loved that full-bodied richness, fruitiness and complexity of the wine, and the freshness that was such a recurring theme in this Decanter panel tasting.’

‘Ribeiro is reliably the one Galician appellation that is absolutely wonderful,’ said Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW. ‘There were very few wines from here that didn’t show great personality. And it’s a personality built on style rather than varietal character. These producers are looking for delicacy and subtlety rather than power, and these wines have an incredible freshness and length.’

‘If people like the richness and ripeness of a fruity Chardonnay, and they like the acidity and zestiness of Sauvignon Blanc, then Ribeiro is a good place for those drinkers to go,’ said Willard. ‘It bridges both styles, but with more delicacy. They are not overly complex wines, but very appealing, drinkable and enjoyable.’

Another strong performer was Doña Blanca, a grape found mostly in the Monterrei sub-region. ‘Until now, it’s been considered supremely uninteresting,’ explained Ballesteros Torres. ‘But a growing number of producers are making very unique wines from this neutral variety, by playing with old vines, and/or lees contact.’

Sarah Jane Evans MW also praised the three examples of Loureiro: ‘It was a real discovery for me. You usually encounter it in blends, but here it made lovely, pale-coloured, low-alcohol wines with freshness and acidity that was reminiscent of Australian Riesling.’

The Godello grape came in for more criticism, from all the tasters. ‘It’s being seen as the next big thing in Spanish wine, and I think that’s completely misguided,’ Ballesteros Torres stated firmly. ‘It can excel in a few areas, but it’s very capricious and site-sensitive, and in most places it’s just boring. It lacks the fresh acidity of Treixadura [found in many Ribeiro whites], and it lacks the attractive bitterness of Albariño.’

The sub-region of Valdorreas also failed to impress. ‘It’s a bit warmer there, and it may be that the winemaking isn’t being done in the best way to preserve acidity,’ said Evans. ‘Quite a few of the wines weren’t as fresh or delicate as I would wish – think tinned yellow peaches rather than white peaches, for example.’

But the overall mood was high. ‘Galicia is a region I’ve always loved drinking,’ said Willard. ‘You’re getting complexity but you don’t have to work too hard, which is perfect at this price point. It’s all about the freshness and the fruit. Most wines are unoaked, and would be a perfect match for the region’s fantastic fresh fish.’

But you don’t necessarily need to drink them with a meal. ‘There were only a few notes where I used the word “gastronomic”, meaning that I wouldn’t drink it without food,’ said Evans. ‘These are lovely, very versatile and good-value whites – definitely something you should have in the fridge.’

Our tasters each pick their top 3 wines from the tasting:

Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW

Ballesteros Torres is the DWWA Regional co-Regional Chair for Spain and holds a master’s in viticulture and oenology among his qualifications. He is on the council of the Institute of Masters of Wine, the boards of the Spanish Tasters Union, and International Federation of Wine Journalists and was made a member of the Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino.

Emilio Rojo, Ribeiro 2015

This wine bewitches the mind and the senses with its refinement and understated complexity. Its unique profile is not down to any grape variety or winemaking practice, but to an origin. If there was one ‘terroir wine’ in this tasting, this was it. Wonderfully distinguished and delicately characterful. An icon! 98 Drink 2018-2024

Attis, Atalante, Rías Baixas 2015

Multi-layered fruity freshness – almost Albariño-like, but with distinctive minerality and a very long finish. The confirmation that Caíño Blanco is a top white variety, with great potential. This has great appeal. 95 Drink 2018-2022

Atrium Vitis, Silius Bucce, Galicia 2015

An original style, built upon lees contact, but keeping a distinctive aroma. Creamy, dense, long: a provocative drink for adventurous wine lovers, with real consistency and complexity. A wine to keep an eye on – there is something special here. 92 Drink 2018-2023

Sarah Jane Evans MW

Evans is a DWWA co-Chair and an award-winning journalist who began writing about wine in the 1980s. She is a recognised expert in Spanish wine and a member of the Gran Orden de Caballeros de Vino. A past Chairman of the Institute of Masters of Wine, Evans divides her time between wine writing, education and judging.

Emilio Rojo, Ribeiro 2015

This is the joy of blind tasting – suddenly encountering an astonishing wine! It’s a wine that makes you want to grab the bottle and a glass and share it with the world. Singingly pure, with passion fruit acidity. A unique treasure from Ribeiro. 96 Drink 2018-2024

Attis, Atalante, Rías Baixas 2015

There is more to Rías Baixas than its lovely Albariños. The local Caiño Blanco grape is still not often found unblended. Here, it starts charmingly, then develops fine complexity, with a lick of refreshing acidity. Very long. 95 Drink 2018-2022

Finca Viñoa, Ribeiro 2016

Another treat from Ribeiro, showing the quality and potential of the Treixadura grape. This is a relatively new project, reviving the terraces of the Avia Valley. Beautifully balanced, with exotic fruit notes and thrilling acidity. 95 Drink 2018-2021

Beth Willard

Willard started her wine career in events and promotions at Hardy’s Canberra winery, Kamberra, and then worked for a small family producer, Capital Wines. Making the shift to Europe, she spent a year working at the Syndicat de Bordeaux before moving into buying. As part of the buying team for Direct Wines, her specialties Spain and Eastern Europe.

Pazo Tizón, Extramundi, Ribeiro 2016

I was really excited when this wine was revealed: I’ve loved it since tasting the first vintage, and great to see a top Ribera del Duero producer behind it. Ripe tropical, herbal fruit with a racy backbone and saline finish. 97 Drink 2018-2021

Emilio Rojo, Ribeiro 2015

A really unique and beautiful wine. It is fleshy and concentrated but still lively: it feels like it is dancing on your palate! Lemon sherbet, tropical fruit, wild herbs and a touch of white pepper on the finish. Delicious. 96 Drink 2018-2024

Lagar do Merens, Fermentado en Barrica, Ribeiro 2015

I don’t know this producer, so it was great to taste something new at this quality level. It’s rich but balanced with a creamy texture and flavours of green apple, peach and a lovely touch of pain d’épices. Needs to be enjoyed with food. 96 Drink 2018-2024

Galicia: the facts

Total area under vine (2016)

Rías Baixas: 4,048ha

Ribeiro: 2,232ha

Valdeorras: 1,351ha

Ribeira Sacra: 1,241ha

Monterrei: 467ha

Wine producers (red and white)

Rías Baixas: 6,031 growers, 170 wineries

Ribeiro: 5,782 growers, 115 wineries

Valdeorras: 2,721 growers, 18 wineries

Ribeira Sacra: 2,438 growers, 89 wineries

Monterrei: 381 growers, 24 wineries

Annual white grape production (2016)

Rías Baixas: 33.2 million kilograms

Ribeiro: 16.4 million kg

Valdeorras: 3.1 million kg

Monterrei: 3 million kg

Ribeira Sacra: 0.4 million kg

Galicia: know your vintages

2016 Widely considered an excellent vintage. Drink over the next five years.

2015 Variable because of issues with rot, but the average quality is quite high. Drink or keep.

2014 Challenging in Rías Baixas, but excellent in other appellations, Valdeorras in particular. Drinking well now.

2013 Cool, humid vintage. Most wines are uninteresting. Ribeiro is the exception, enjoying a great year. Drink.

Top Galician whites from the panel tasting:

See all 96 wines from the panel tasting

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The panel felt it was a tasting of two extremes. Pierre Mansour explained: ‘There were some truly great wines with real identity, class and intensity, but at the same time they were light and gentle in structure and alcohol. There were no poor or faulty wines, but too many neutral ones.’ Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW completely agreed: ‘Half of the wines tasted as if they were made in the winery – you couldn’t identify the grape or the terroir. They were just simple, fresh white wines that left me disappointed.’

Scroll down to see the best Albariño wines from the panel tasting

It felt like Albariño was ‘suffering from the Pinot Grigio effect’, continued Ballesteros Torres. ‘You make a good wine and people fall in love with it. So you decide to increase your production tenfold and expect people to still love it? It won’t happen.’ Sarah Jane Evans MW admitted that Albariño was in ‘a risky position’. Rueda had damaged itself already by diluting the character of its Verdejos and hunting lower prices, she explained. ‘And Albariño is well on its way to doing the same thing.’

Pinot Grigio to change your mind

Weather may have had a big part to play in the poor results, with many of the wines from the mediocre 2014 vintage. Mansour said the region’s climate ‘might explain some of the neutrality and dilution. It’s very wet there, and producers have to take care of their vineyards.’ He also conceded that those 2015s that were submitted were those that had not had any lees contact, ‘which makes a huge and positive difference in Albariño’.

Decanter travel guide: Galacia, Spain

But it wasn’t all bad. The best examples did impress the judges, who were not shy in waxing lyrical about their quality. Evans described them as ‘gloriously aromatic, with seductive and charming fruit’ and urged readers to snap them up. Mansour felt the wines were made to be drunk young – with the exception of the Pazo de Señorans 2008, which had the acidity, fruit and structure to enable it to age for decades yet.

While not many wines declared sub-regions on their labels, our panel felt that it was still too early to clearly differentiate between them blind. However, Evans said she detected a saline character in the wines from Val do Salnés, which Ballesteros said represented the ‘true identity of Rías Baixas Albariño’.

As a parting message to readers, Mansour advised them to ‘stick with good producers’, while Ballesteros Torres said at under £15, these wines represented ‘great, consistent value – and they’re better than Pinot Grigio!’

Best Albariño: Panel tasting results

The new-look Ribeiro is rediscovering its indigenous grape varieties: Treixadura, Loureiro, Godello, Torrontés, Lado… and more. It is also once again exploiting its unique terroir, close to the Atlantic Ocean but protected from it by mountains (making it much less humid than Rías Baixas, with shallow granite soils providing purity), and centuries of tradition in the production of fine wine.

The range of qualities and styles is quite broad in Ribeiro. The best examples offer purity of fruit, with typical green leaf aromas, laurel and mint, and brioche for those with lees contact. On the palate they tend to be quite moderate in alcohol – 12.5% to 13% alcohol – fresh, expressive and different. With few exceptions, they are best drunk within five years of harvest.

Our second appellation in this selection, Valdeorras, has a different story. Further east again, it nestles against the border with León and has a remarkably continental climate. It owes its fame to its flagship white grape variety Godello, and to a few heroes who understood and exploited its potential.

The best Godello wines from Valdeorras are comparable to top Burgundy: solidly built but delicate, quite terroir-sensitive, complex and racy, and very long. They benefit from lees contact and bâtonnage (lees stirring), and need some bottle ageing to acquire their best expression. They are likely to become collectable: Spanish new wave classics. You heard it here first!

Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW is Decanter World Wine Awards Regional co-Chair for Spain and Sherry. This wines first appeared in Expert’s Choice in Decanter magazine – subscribe to Decanter here. Editing for Decanter.com by Ellie Douglas.

González Byass has acquired one of the top wineries in the DO Rías Baixas in Galicia, Bodegas Pazos de Lusco.

Bodegas Pazos de Lusco is the first Rías Baixas winery for the González Byass portfolio, joining others owned by the company in key Spanish regions, including Rioja, Rueda, Jerez, Cava and Penedès.

‘With this acquisition, González Byass strengthens its portfolio and its position of leadership in quality wine production,’ said the company.

‘Rías Baixas is one of the most recognised white wine producing Spanish DOs globally.’ A fee for the deal was not disclosed.

• READ: Rías Baixas grows up?

Wines from Bodegas Pazos de Lusco include the Albariños Lusco – which was awarded a commended medal for the 2013 vintage in the 2015 Decanter World Wine Awards – and Pazao Pineiro.

Bodegas Pazos de Lusco is located in Salvaterra do Mino and the vineyard uses the traditional pergola method, making premium Spanish white wines.

The winery also includes a sixteenth century manor house, chapel, stables and lodge.

Other wineries owned by González Byass include Tio Pepe, Finca Constancia and Vinas del Vero. As well as producing Spanish wine and Sherry, the company also sells spirits.

A dispute over production in Valdeorras, Galicia’s golden valley in North West Spain, has led to the resignation of the chairman of the wine region’s DO regulatory council.

Image credit: TurGalicia.es

The conflict between cooperatives and producers has escalated after Jose Luis Garcia Pando, the now former chairman of Valedorras DO council, accused 178 growers of exceeding the maximum grape harvest yields.

Galicia’s government, la Xunta, was immersed in industry talks this week in a bid to resolve the dispute.

‘Cooperatives and growers have been trying to increase the amount of kilos of grapes per hectare, but they have to comply with the DO rules,’ said a producer who wished not to be named and who voted in favour of a motion by Garcia Pando to open proceedings against growers accused of breaching production limits.

Some producers have even claimed that cooperatives used grapes from outside the DO region.

Garcia Pando resigned on 10 February after his council motion failed when unions and cooperatives voted against him.

‘We have lost all confidence in the chairman, this was not the place to launch proceedings against growers – it has to go through the correct administrative and judicial channels,’ said Jose Ramon Gonzalez at the Unions Agrarias union.

He rejected claims by producers that excessive grape production in Valdeorras would threaten the quality of wine production.

‘The DO rules are there to ensure a minimum quality is obtained, and no-one would doubt the quality from Valdeorras, even with more grape production,’ Gonzalez said. Unions say producers weigh the grapes from growers and so should have been aware of any excess in production.

Valdeorras DO said excess grape production was unearthed by inspections carried out during the 2014 harvest.

See also:

• Ribera del Duero council plans DO status for white wines
• Rioja wine producers expand in Rueda in 2015

Written by Barnaby Eales

In less than 16 years, Javier Zaccagnini and Mariano Garcia have achieved their aim – to make a wine in Ribera del Duero equal to the world’s best. Sarah Jane Evans MW meets the duo and discovers the secrets of their success

Aalto at a glance

Appellation Ribera del Duero

Vineyards Owns or rents 110ha, made up of 200 plots, none bigger than 1ha, sourcing from nine villages, and some new sites including in front of the winery

Grape variety Tempranillo, known in the region as Tinto Fino, with a thicker skin and a smaller berry. Verdejo planted for a white wine project Soils Vineyard sites reflect Ribera del Duero’s diversity: clay, limestone, sand and pebbles

Production Aalto’s production has been steady at around 200,000 bottles, but is now increasing to 250,000. Production of PS is no more than 10,000 bottles

Exports 70% of production exported

How has Aalto made it to the top so quickly? The plan in 1999 was to ‘make a wine that in the space of 15 to 20 years should reach the quality of the best wines in the world’. Many would say it has already achieved this ambitious aim. Three facts are significant in explaining the rapid ascent: old vines, insider knowledge and the remarkable duo behind the project.

To start with, the old vines. By seeking out plots of mature bush vines, Aalto never had to go through the usual process of planting vines and having initial years of moderate success while waiting for the wines to mature. Here comes the insider knowledge. Aalto winemaker Mariano Garcia had been in charge of the wines at Vega Sicilia for 30 years, even before the advent of the current owners. Meanwhile, managing director Javier Zaccagnini had been the director of Ribera’s regulatory body, the Consejo Regulador, for six years. Between them, they knew exactly where to look.

Meeting the pair, they seem an unlikely combination for success. Zaccagnini has an MBA, speaks four languages, and is a man bounding with nervous energy, constantly alive with ideas. Classical music is the soundtrack to his life and endless car journeys, and his partner is a professional musician. Garcia is tall and long-limbed, with the glamour of a mature rockstar. With his white hair and silver beard, plus a gold chain round his neck, the word debonair could have been invented for him. If you attend a vertical of Vega Sicilia, you’ll be tasting many of Garcia’s wines.

The two became friends working in Ribera del Duero, when Zaccagnini would bring visitors to Vega Sicilia. By that time Garcia had already established his own project in Castilla y León, Mauro, one which is now run by his son Eduardo. His other son Alberto is running the Astrales winery in Ribera del Duero. When Garcia left Vega Sicilia, Zaccagnini’s proposal that they start again, in the same region, to make the best wines using the best vine material, in the way that he wanted, was too good to turn down.

In the beginning

Zaccagnini’s achievement has been to build a business where Garcia felt free to develop his ideas and follow his own way of working. At dinner, he stresses Garcia’s significance: ‘Mariano is 80% of our success.’ The fact that we are all talking over a very good dinner is a reminder that Garcia likes to make time for a really good meal. He’s recognised throughout Spain for his seriousness about food: his office in the Mauro winery is covered with plaques from organisations recognising the importance of his contribution to gastronomy. His wine philosophy owes a good deal to his pleasures in the kitchen: ‘Don’t manage the wine too much. Intervene at little as possible. The same goes for chefs.’

Garcia was ‘born in the vineyards’, as his great grandfather’s family had land in Castille. He was encouraged to taste as a young man, and was attracted to the creativity in winemaking. Zaccagnini’s own start in the world of wine was less promising. True, he was born in one of the three great Sherry towns – El Puerto de Santa Maria – and his grandparents had a bodega. However, neither of his parents drank. It wasn’t until he was 29 that ‘I suggested to my brother that we do a wine appreciation course.’ He’d qualified as an agricultural engineer and, being ‘ambitious’, ran not one but two businesses simultaneously. By then he had two daughters but never saw them. ‘I was on the point of a heart attack. One day, driving home, I was so stressed I stopped the car, lay back, looked at the roof and thought if I don’t stop working like this I’ll be dead.’ He moved into a gourmet food business, bringing him closer to the world of wine.

In 1992 Ribera’s fledgling Consejo Regulador, then just 10 years old, appointed him as director. It urgently needed a blast of the Zaccagnini management magic. For instance: ‘We had 600 growers producing fruit. At vintage they had to fill in paperwork for every load. By the end of the harvest we had 30,000 chits to process. It took the consejo till March each year to add up them up!’ His solution: a credit card for the growers.

A consejo is not always the most exciting place to work. But it was magic for Zaccagnini. He ended up with the dream of having a bodega of his own.

Why call it Aalto? Because it’s a short, internationally pronounceable word, and one that has the real advantage of appearing top of the list in any guide.

Careful selection

Aalto is a pure expression of Tempranillo. It might seem a curious choice to commit to one variety when with a more extreme climate than Rioja there’s a risk of losing the crop. Garcia is unperturbed, and loves the character of the wine: ‘Even St-Emilion [with Merlot] lacks the subtlety of Tempranillo.’ He explains, ‘The Tempranillos in Rioja, Ribera, Toro, are all the same genotype. But they are unlike the Ribera Tempranillo, which has adapted to our different climate.’

The key to Aalto’s complexity is the choice of the best fruit from across Ribera del Duero’s diverse terroirs. The top villages include Roa, La Horra, La Aguilera, Fresnillo and Moradillo. People were territorial, set on keeping cuttings within each village so that today there is much variation between villages. Zaccagnini says, ‘We could do a Burgundy style classification here in Ribera if we wanted.’

Certainly there’s a lot to be said for the Burgundian comparison: turn the map of Ribera 90˚ and it shows the same long, narrow shape and spread of villages. Indeed, Peter Sisseck of Pingus, Hacienda Monasterio and Psi is part of a new long-term project with the Consejo to map these soils. At Aalto, each plot is harvested and handled separately, with different oak treatments. Aalto spends usually 20 months in oak, 50% new French, the other 50% one- to three-year-old French and American. The small-production PS (Pagos Seleccionadas) sees 24 months in 100% new French oak. Both PS and Aalto are blended after ageing.

In good company

How then do they differ from Vega Sicilia? In one sense they are not directly comparable, as neither Valbuena nor Unico is 100% Tempranillo. The former has a little less than 10% of Merlot and Malbec; the latter, a similar dollop of Cabernet Sauvignon. The Vega Sicilia wines also undergo a different ageing regime. Valbuena spends 30 months in barrels and vats of different ages and origins, with a further two years in bottle. Unico has 10 years of ageing before release, while the Reserva Especial carries on the tradition of blending across three vintages. These are wines built for the long haul.

Aalto and PS, by contrast, both 100% Tempranillo, with between 50% and 100% new oak, are an obvious new generation, altogether more concentrated, bolder and more direct wines. Liquorice, dark fruits, and fine oak dominate the palate. Perhaps the better comparison is with Alión, a Vega Sicilia project started in Garcia’s time, which is a bold, modern statement of 100% Tempranillo with 100% new French oak. Both share the same approach of superb ripe fruit, with a similar focus on selection and concentration. Both are made for drinkers who like their wines younger. Yet Aalto is still a baby compared to Alión, which was launched 13 years before, and it promises plenty.

After Aalto’s first decade, it acquired new backers in the form of the Masaveu family, which owns the Fillaboa estate in Rías Baixas, among others. Zaccagnini is very comfortable: ‘They understand the nature of the wine business and are very hands-off. Everything is reinvested into the very best equipment for the winery.’ Their support means that building has begun again on the discreetly positioned winery, as well as the continued investment in plantings of carefully selected vines for decades ahead.

Looking forward to the next 15 to 20 years, Garcia and Zaccagnini will have to think about a succession plan, for a new team to build on their achievement. Surely no successors will ever be as interesting, diverting and contrasting as Garcia and Zaccagnini – or as good company. Whoever it is, though, can be sure that Aalto has been created on that most secure foundation, fine old vines.

Written by Sarah Jane Evans MW

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In less than 16 years, Javier Zaccagnini and Mariano Garcia have achieved their aim – to make a wine in Ribera del Duero equal to the world’s best. Sarah Jane Evans MW meets the duo and discovers the secrets of their success

Aalto: a timeline

1978 Mariano Garcia (above) founds Mauro winery in Castilla y León

1992-1998 Javier Zaccagnini is director of the Consejo Regulador, the regulatory board for Ribera del Duero

March 1998 Garcia leaves Vega Sicilia, where he has worked for 30 years

February 1999 Aalto founded, to make two wines: Aalto and, in exceptional years, a small production of PS (Pagos Seleccionados: ‘selected vineyards’)

2000 Planted 12ha in Quintanilla de Arriba, around the site for the winery

2011 First commercial launch of Zaccagnini’s Sei Solo

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In less than 16 years, Javier Zaccagnini and Mariano Garcia have achieved their aim – to make a wine in Ribera del Duero equal to the world’s best. Sarah Jane Evans MW meets the duo and discovers the secrets of their success

Aalto: Sei Solo

This is Javier Zaccagnini’s own project, launched in 2011, from 60-year-old wines in La Horra. As he says, ‘Aalto was Mariano’s project; I wanted one of my own.’ His focus is on developing a Burgundian-style Tinto Fino with more elegance and less power than is common in Ribera del Duero. As a result there is no new oak.

The small-scale production is fermented in four small 20hl vats; the alcoholic and malolactic fermentations are spontaneous; no press wine is added to boost the concentration. ‘I wanted to forget about structure and power; that’s not my style.’ The wines are matured in 228-litre and 600-litre, two-year-old French oak barrels.

The final blend creates two wines: Sei Solo, of which there were 1,200 bottles in 2011, and Preludio, 4,000 bottles. And the name? Stemming from his great love of music, it comes from six solo masterpieces for the violin, by Bach.

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In less than 16 years, Javier Zaccagnini and Mariano Garcia have achieved their aim – to make a wine in Ribera del Duero equal to the world’s best. Sarah Jane Evans MW meets the duo and discovers the secrets of their success

Five of the best from Zaccagnini & Garcia

Aalto, PS 2004

18.5/20pts (95/100pts)

Fascinating insight into ageability of PS (Pagos Seleccionadas) in a very good year. Gloriously aromatic, floral, and black fruits. Bright, fresh, complex, with a clean, mineral edge. Still so young, a sign of the potential of Ribera del Duero.

Price: £80 (in bond) City Wine Collection, Turville Valley Wines

Drink 2015- 2025

Alc 15%

Sei Solo 2012

18.5/20pts (95/100pts)

Glorious mineral elegance. A big wine with a warm alcohol depth. Intense dark fruit with a long, finely textured, intense finish.

Price: £36.66 (ib) Justerini & Brooks

Drink 2016-2024

Alc 15%

Aalto, PS 2011

18/20pts (93/100pts)

A vividly powerful Ribera del Duero, showing what this region is capable of using old vines, and thick-skinned Tinto Fino. Dense and spicy, with black fruits, and liquorice and fennel complexity. Oak gives fine smokiness. Flinty, mineral finish.

Price: £49-£89.60 Christopher Keiller, Fine & Rare, Hedonism, Justerini & Brooks

Drink 2018- 2030

Alc 15%

Aalto 2011

17/20pts (90/100pts)

Spicy, glossy Tinto Fino, showing a fine-tuned midpalate, with some slightly drying, dusty tannins. An enticing richness of quality fruit (suggesting sweet blueberries) with a savoury seasoning. The oak is a feature, but the quality is fine and balances the richness. Very big with a warm ripple of alcohol. 50% new oak – 85% French oak and 15% American.

Price: £49-£89.60 Christopher Keiller, Fine & Rare, Hedonism, Justerini & Brooks

Drink 2015-2020

Alc 15%

Sei Solo, Preludio 2012

17/20pts (90/100pts)

Boldly aromatic with black fruits, fine leather and liquorice. Signs of fine oak barrels lead the palate. Dense, excellent fruit matched by spicy palate. Four-square structure. Fermented in small oak vats in a corner of the winery and aged in oak barrels for 18 months. A very promising beginning to the project.

Price: £16.67 (ib) Justerini & Brooks

Drink 2018-2020

Alc 15%

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The Albariño of Spain’s Rías Baixas was once a wine to drink young, but now it will last for a decade. What changed, asks Margaret Rand?

There is something slightly perverse, one might think, in abandoning a whole range of grape varieties to concentrate on just one – and then focusing on ways of giving that one grape a variety of flavours. But that’s markets for you. if Albariño is what sells, Albariño is what growers will grow, and Loureiro, Treixadura, Caíño Blanco and the rest – not to mention the still more obscure red varieties – must sit at the back and not complain. Albariño is fortunate to have won: left to themselves, the growers of Rías Baixas might well prefer to grow hybrids.

Hybrids, actually, are probably the best adapted to the local weather. in nearby santiago de Compostela, they tell you, it either has rained, is about to rain, or is raining. ‘in 1896, mildew killed 99% of the vines here,’ says Eulogio Pomares Zarate, owner of Zarate. ‘The vineyard went from 25,000 hectares to 250ha. We didn’t start using copper sulphate against mildew until the 1920s. Phylloxera couldn’t survive in our acidic, sandy soils, but we had 25 years of mildew.’ hybrids are tougher when it comes to mildew; some 3-4 million litres of hybrid red are grown every year, he says, but it doesn’t get bottled.

What does get bottled is Albariño. spain is mad for Albariño. And spain is right: it tastes of salt and ripe citrus with a touch of apricot. it’s aromatic and mineral, structured and creamy, long and long- lived. The best wines can live – and improve – for 10 years and taste tight, mineral and honeyed at the end of it. it’s like grown-up Viognier with acidity and without the blowsiness. Twenty years ago it was regarded as a wine to drink young and without too much thought; now it’s at a very different level. What happened?

A damp landscape

Rías Baixas is right on the Atlantic, tucked in over the bit of Portugal that makes Vinho Verde, where Albariño becomes Alvarinho. The land looks exactly the same both sides of the border: it’s a granite landscape, all pine and heath, morning glory and blue hydrangeas, and eucalyptus groves that fade to a ghostly grey behind the frequent curtains of rain. The rain is sudden and local, and clears as quickly as it starts. smallholders grow their vines on high pergolas over cabbages, just as they do in Portugal: the pergolas give enormous crops but have the virtue of keeping the grapes well away from the damp ground.

Large crops used to be considered a good thing, when the wine was light and for early drinking. Now training on wires is an alternative, but wires are certainly not driving the pergolas out. You get one gramme per litre less acidity with wires, reckons Emilio Rodriguez, technical director of Terras gauda, and half a per cent more alcohol, because the grapes get more sun and more ventilation: ‘it’s a lower crop, but better quality.’ But he also says that finding differences of aroma and flavour between the two training methods is more difficult. ‘The most important thing is that in a complicated vintage with poor ripening, you get better results with vines trained on wires,’ he says.

This evening-out of vintage variation in an erratic climate, by bringing the worst years up to the level of better ones, is one of the achievements of better viticulture here. Climate change has helped, too: all the growers are very pleased with climate change. ‘Twenty-five years ago,’ says Christina Mantilla, winemaker at Pazo San Mauro, ‘we were getting wines with 10% alcohol and 12g of acidity. Now we’re getting 12% alcohol and 9-10g of acidity. We love climate change. But it’s better viticulture and winemaking too, and greater vine age.’ ‘It used to rain all summer,’ agrees winemaker Javier Peláez of Marqués de Vizhoja. ‘It used to be almost impossible to get grapes to ripeness, they were so acidic. Now we have to pick earlier. Drought used to be unheard of, but now it can happen.’

Regional differences

The Rías Baixas DO was established in 1988. It’s divided into five areas: the Salnes Valley, which is effectively entirely Albariño; O Rosal, Soutomaior, Ribeira do Ulla and Condado do Tea, where you might find small percentages of Treixadura, Loureiro, Caíño Blanco and others in the blend. But everywhere, if it says Albariño on the label, it must be 100% Albariño. So naturally you want to make your Albariño different from everyone else’s.

The regions have their differences. Condado do Tea is the warmest and driest region, and gives slightly riper grapes with slightly less malic acid. The average temperature over the year is 15oC in Rosal, whereas in the Salnes Valley it’s 14.2oC. Rainfall is pretty much the same in all, at 1,600– 1,800mm per year. Some vineyards are more inland than others, but the real differences are those of latitude: the Salnes Valley is the northerly limit for ripening. This is where you find the real acidity. Condado do Tea is in the south, on the Portuguese border, and if you listen closely I swear you’ll hear them pronounce Albariño as Alvarinho.

The differences in climate may seem small, but they have implications for winemaking, and for flavour. The cooler your site, or the year, the higher your acidity will be, and the more likely you’ll be to consider doing a bit of malolactic fermentation to soften it. But not too much: everybody wants purity and minerality in their wines, and most don’t want too much of the buttery, lactic notes that come with the malolactic. So they may only do it in certain years, or for a small percentage of the blend. There are more ingenious ways of lowering acidity: cold stablisation will bring it down by about one gramme per litre. (Some producers still add shellfish shells to the soil, to raise the pH, which is very low here, at around five. Adding oyster or clam or mussel shells – which are in abundance, since farming them is big business in the rías, the steep-sided fjords that give the region its name – can raise it to eight or nine. That in itself won’t affect the acidity of the wine, but it will certainly increase the ability of the vine to take nutrients from the soil.) Skin contact – a ‘cold soak’ for several hours before pressing – will edge the acidity down by another gramme or more, while giving you greater aromas.

Divergent styles

Wine styles diverge in other ways, too, encouraged by greater ripeness. You can opt for unadorned austerity: just the wine, with nothing fancy. ‘I stopped skin maceration in 2000,’ says Eulogio Pomares Zarate. ‘I want terroir expression, not extra power and exuberance.’ Palacio de Fefinanes abjures skin contact because it doesn’t want the tannins that go with it; nor does it want the extra aromas. You can have some wood ageing, which doesn’t sound like a great idea for an aromatic, mineral grape. Or you can go for long lees ageing, with or without lees-stirring. You can also make it sparkling, though it looks as though other grapes do this better. You can even try making it sweet, though you won’t get the DO for that. The main choice seems to be oak or lees ageing; and oak-aged Albariño has a limited market. A few restaurants like it because they think it offers more food-matching potential, but most Spaniards prefer it unoaked; or so I’m told.

Yet it’s far from being a revolutionary idea. ‘Until the DO started, all Albariño in Rías Baixas was made in wood,’ says Eulogio Pomares Zarate. ‘I’ve still got some 550-litre chestnut barrels here, though I stopped using wood in 1999. The wine used to be fuller-bodied with more colour, and there was more skin maceration. Old chestnut barrels were the usual thing.’ Now it’s more likely to be French or even American oak. Agro de Bazan’s Limousin cuvée (the oak these days is actually Alliers, says export manager Jesus Alvarez) uses two-year-old, 500-litre barrels, which is not very frightening; Palacio de Fefinanes’ 1583 is fermented in oak and does the malo in oak, some of which is new, and about 10% of which is American. The former wine gains muscularity but no oak flavour; the latter is distinctly oaky, and more square in shape in the mouth.

Personally, I don’t go so much for the oaked wines. But long lees ageing can be interesting; and ‘long’ can be three months, or 30. Pazo Baion’s standard 2012 has four months’ battonage; its 2006 Condes de Alberei had three years on the lees, and was bottled unfiltered. The first is structured, deep and precise; the second is all buttered tangerines and silk, very complex. An extra six years makes a difference, too, of course, but long lees ageing increases a wine’s longevity in a way that oak ageing does not. It keeps it fresher for longer, and enables a slow development of complexity. And now that Albariño sees itself as a serious wine, longevity is important.

A top Albariño will improve for a decade. To keep it longer than that is probably pushing it, though as knowledge of specific sites increases, so will the number of exceptional wines. Jesus Alvarez of Agro de Bazan suggests 18 months after the harvest is the ideal age to start drinking it, and it doesn’t seem to go through a closed phase. Not that perverse, then.

Written by Margaret Rand

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The Albariño of Spain’s Rías Baixas was once a wine to drink young, but now it will last for a decade. What changed, asks Margaret Rand?

5 great buys from Rías Baixas

Bodegas Zarate, El Palomar Albariño 2012

18.5/20pts (95/100pts)

Named after the dovecote in the vineyard, this was almost overbearing in its early youth but is settling down now. It’s fermented in a big old vat but there’s no oak flavour. Lots of structure and concentration. A searching wine, precise and detailed, with complexity.

Price: £23.10 Indigo Wines

Drink 2014-2020

Alc 12.5%

Terras Gauda, La Mar Caíño Blanco 2011

18.5/20pts (95/100pts)

No, not Albariño this one; instead one of the region’s rarer grape varieties. This is concentrated and muscular, with a touch of tannin, and huge character. A big, tight, salty, mineral wine.

Price: £27-£30 Harvey Nichols, Joseph Barnes, Les Caves de Pyrène

Drink 2014-2020

Alc 12.7%

Bodegas del Palacio de Fefiñanes, Albariño 2013

17.5/20pts (91/100pts)

Good ripe citrus fruit and no creaminess from malolactic. Pure, precise, nice weight, lovely elastic texture, salty, aromatic fruit, and plenty of character. Very expressive and graceful.

Price: £14.95-£17.99 Lupe Pinto, Martinez Fine Wines, The Wine Society, Waitrose

Drink 2014-2019

Alc 12.5%

Condes de Albarei, Albariño 2012

17.5/20pts (91/100pts)

Very salty and tight, lovely texture, very fine and elegant with good structure; pure, long, with a typical bitter edge to the finish which adds bite.

Price: £11.95 The Wine Reserve

Drink 2014-2018

Alc 12.5%

Coto Redondo, Señorio de Rubios Albariño 2012

17/20pts (90/100pts)

Salty and mineral nose and palate with very pure, ripe and aromatic fruit. Lovely balance and texture, and again, that nice bitter bite at the end.

Price: £10.75 Yorkshire Vintners

Drink 2014-2018

Alc 12.5%

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Is there a grammar of wine? Is there, in other words, a system or set of first principles through which the mass of 'wines' can be articulated and comprehended? The analogy isn't an exact one, but ampelography comes closest to making the metaphor work.

Nothing sends me more regularly back to my reference books than the need to understand grape varieties. Over the last decade or more, though, the insights of genetics have reshaped the varietal horizon, and made the old books redundant. We’ve all, consequently, become a little nervous about definitive varietal pronouncements, in case the ground had moved under our feet. What if Viognier turned out to be genetically identical to Fiano, or Merlot proved to be Sangiovese’s aunt? And what do we call Zinfandel this week?

That’s why an almost audible sigh of relief will go up across the wine world on Thursday: at last the wine world can lay its hands on the reference grammar we all need. Wine Grapes by Jancis Robinson MW, Julia Harding MW and Dr José Vouillamoz (all 2.66 kg of it) is a magnificent achievement: colossally informative, illuminating and intriguing. No one but Jancis Robinson could have marshalled such a project, galvanizing and coordinating the efforts of the international wine community. The genetic researches of Dr Vouillamoz and his colleagues provide the book’s wow factor, while the painstaking scrupulousness of Julia Harding surely lies behind its seamless grafting of scholarship and academic rigour to informative, descriptive prose.

Once I’d ripped the cellophane off the book’s fabric-coated box, I couldn’t resist road-testing it with a couple of recent queries. I’d been astonished recently by the almost overwhelming minerality of the 2010 ‘La Mar’ from Terras Gauda in Rías Baixas (85% Caiño), yet also puzzled by that variety’s appearance on the labels of other red wines from the same area. Ah, I see: those reds should be labeled Borraçal.

A summer visit to Piedmont left me simultaneously beguiled and perplexed by the extraordinary Ruchè, a musk-perfumed yet grandiose dry red: surely it had some Moscato Rosa parentage? Apparently not – though in this case, the space between the lines implies, its full DNA story still awaits telling. The beauty of Mtsvane and Rkatsiteli blends from Georgia recently blipped up on my radar (more of this in a week or two), so I was keen to find out more about each. The book’s descriptions of each of these impressive varieties chimed with my experience, and I was intrigued to learn that the DNA of Rkatsiteli make it a close relative of local wild vines.

The big stories in the book, though, are the lengthy accounts of the most polyphiloprogenitive varieties or, as the authors call them, ‘founder varieties’. Some fourteen varieties, too, are given family trees or pedigree diagrams, which usefully schematize the relationships between them, though it’s a pity that a significant section of the most important of these, that of Pinot, disappears into the book’s gutter. (Those for the Wisconsin hybrid Brianna and the German hybrid Prior are really of interest to geneticists and grape breeders only, and you’d have to be Swiss to take much interest in Completer and Prié.)

We all, note, need to revise our terminology, and stop muddling our mutations and our varieties. A sobering lesson of Wine Grapes is that La Tâche 2009 (offered by Justerini & Brooks recently at £2,416 a bottle) is in fact made from the same single variety as Tesco’s Linoti Pinot Grigio (on offer online for £29.94 per case). What we used to consider two separate varieties “are simply skin-colour variations of the same variety produced by a particular type of mutation” (p.XV). There is no more perplexing aspect of the book’s insights than this, and I still find it hard to grasp how a bottle of tangy, tart, taut Côtes du Jura Savagnin can really be made from ‘the same grape variety’ as Olivier Humbrecht’s luscious Herrenweg de Turkheim Vieilles Vignes Gewurztraminer, produced just 180 km away. Grape-vine genetics is, for drinking purposes, a highly theoretical branch of knowledge.

And the price? The book notionally costs £120, but in fact is available for £75 (plus postage if you live outside the UK) via http://winegrapes.org/special-offer/, an astonishing £45 difference. (Amazon.co.uk wants £78.) Bookshop owners, look on and weep. Personally, I would rather the book had excluded the faintly anachronistic Viala and Vermorel colour plates, and cost £49.95, a price I’m sure would still have made ample profits for everyone involved. There will be an electronic edition next March. Let’s hope it will be tagged less graspingly.

By the way, Fiano and Viognier have nothing to do with each other. But Merlot is Trebbiano’s aunt. And, Zinfandel producers, get ready to re-label your wines …Tribidrag.

Written by Andrew Jefford

Albariño is the mainstay of quality wines produced in Spain's Rías Baíxas and Portugal's Vinho Verde. KITTY JOHNSON profiles a variety that loves rainy days and wet weekends.

If I went to live in Galicia, the first thing I’d do besides eating fresh fish every day would be to open an umbrella shop at Santiago de Compostela airport. In Spain’s rainiest region, this could be a real money-spinner and I happen to know there isn’t one there already. Albarino grape growers and winemakers in this northwest coastal corner of the country have also found a way to profit from the 1.5–2m of rain the region sees on average every year – they plant a variety that positively thrives in it.

The origins of the Albariño grape, or Alvarinho as it’s called across the Portuguese frontier where it makes single-varietal versions of tongue-prickling Vinho Verde, are shrouded in mythology. Whether it is indigenous to Galicia, was brought from France by Raimond of Burgundy in the 11th century, or introduced by Cluny monks in the 12th, is unknown. What is certain, however, is that it has found a site it really likes, separated from the rest of Spain and surrounded by sea and mountains, in the warm and wet DO Rias Baixas (pronounced ‘ree-as by-shuss’).

• Wine Travel – Portugal Road Trip

Albariño Viticulture

It’s a viticultural area that has had to expand in response to demand and a fourth sub-region was added to the group in 1996. The terrain shifts from flat lands in the cooler north at Val do Salnes and hilly terraces in the west at O Rosal, to the more mountainous Condado do Tea in the east and the hilly, new addition, Soutomaior. The gradient of the slopes affects the choice of planting system, although the majority of producers use the traditional pergola technique. Chosen for the beneficial shading it offers the grapes during periods when the clouds part, the system is now losing ground, especially in Condado de Tea, to the alternative, silvo (a variant of the Geneva double-curtain system). Denser planting is possible with this method, as is the increasingly popular option of mechanical harvesting. Either way, with buckets of rain around each year, the grapes are kept off the ground to reduce the risk of rot. The grape’s thick yellowish-green skin also provides an effective raincoat.

Under these conditions, the Albariño prospers, bringing in permitted yields of 71.5 hectolitres per hectare (roughly twice the national average for other varieties). For a thick-skinned, many-pipped berry that doesn’t produce a huge amount of juice, a high volume of grapes is vital to keep up with demand. Vintage variations are inevitable and while 1999 was a bumper crop, 2000 saw a drastic drop in grapes harvested of between 40 and 50%.The best examples are 100% of the variety but each region permits blends using varying percentages of all or some of the region’s lesser-known and lesser quality choices: Loureiro, Treixadura, Torrontés and Caiño Blanco. These guys are not key players, but between them they add up to little more than 5% of total plantings in the DO. Whether it’s part of a blend or a single varietal sample, the proud Galicians don’t like to part with too much of their cherished Albariño. Around half of the wine produced is kept for home consumption (the lucky locals use it to wash down their limitless supply of freshly caught fish), but happily exports are on the up, with the UK, US and Germany showing most interest.The wines are aromatic and often slightly spicy with appley, peachy flavours and mouth-watering acidity. They can be either floral and citrussy or apricoty, richer and more honeyed. To extract more colour and flavour from the grapes, some winemakers swear by skin contact before fermentation. Others find the extra richness comes from lees contact afterwards.

In general, with exports on the increase there’s a growing desire to vinify using oak. Most producers now make a barrel-fermented and/or matured alternative, which spends up to six months (but typically only three or four) in new American or French oak casks. Many of the wines made by this technique suggest that this kind of oak ageing, especially in American wood, is a mistake. The grape’s glory is in its unique, delicately aromatic, varietal characteristics, most of which are lost by a hefty helping of vanilla from the oak. What is more surprising in a wine that has been made and marketed for knocking back with the local fresh fish and seafood is its propensity for ageing, a characteristic that can be attributed to the wine’s naturally high acidity. This enables it to maintain fruity freshness while it develops a golden colour and richer flavour. A line-up of the last five vintages from producer Palacio de Fefinañes in Cambados demonstrated the concentration of flavours that can develop with time in the bottle. The wines transformed from delicate, floral, aromatic and grapey to honeyed, spicy, apricoty and even slightly smokey.

A similar intensity can also be achieved by leaving the wine on lees in the tank for longer. At Pazo de Señorans, the president of the Consejo Regulador of Rias Baixas, Marisol Bueno, produces a special selection (Seleccion de Añada Blanco) wine that is held in tank for anything up to three years. Using carefully chosen grapes from the vintage, the result is a delicious, fruity, smokily spiced, mature Riesling-style mouthful. Albariño’s Spanish roots are acknowledged by the Portuguese who, in Ponte de Lima county, refer to the grape as Galego (after the local dialect of Galicia). Nevertheless, it has secured a place in northwest Portugal, where from Monção and the newer sub-region of Melgaço come fruitier, more alcoholic (13% rather than 9–10%) and age-worthy versions of the often criticised, spritzy ‘green wine’ Vinho Verde. At around 40 hectolitres per hectare its yields are considerably lower than in Spain, probably due to less rain and the use of a different clone. With a recommended three-year optimum drinking period, it is often heralded as Portugal’s most serious white wine.

Wine Travel: Spanish Wine Regions to Visit

Albariño Future

So what does the future hold for this rain-loving wonder grape? Although both Spanish and Portuguese plantings and global interest is increasing, Albariño is pricey and its wines are still fairly exclusive. The Burgundian-style feudal system of land ownership in Galicia means it’s hard for the smaller growers or producers to think too big, but no doubt winemakers will continue to follow trends and experiment with different approaches to vinification. The biggest exporter, Martín Códax, even tried a late-harvest version in 1996, when weather conditions permitted it. On balance, producers should focus instead on the winning formula of lees ageing to create an added richness while respecting the grape’s varietal distinction. And if you’ve got a recent vintage bottle at home, keep your hands off it. Find a good spot for it in the cellar and come back to it in a year or two. Chances are your patience will be rewarded.

Albariño Characteristics

It likes high-acid, granitic and sandy soils – and lots of rain. Its thick-skinned, yellowish-green berries ripen early.

In Spain

Grown in Galicia in northwest Spain, its flavours range from floral, aromatic, citrus and peach to richer honey, spice and apricot.

Portugal

Grown in the Minho in north-western Portugal, its flavours are more green apple and citrus.