The best wines offered good value, found our judges. See the top scoring wines here...
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 11 best Albariño wines
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.’
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’.
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!’

Mar de Frades, Val do Salnés 2015
Winemaker Paula Fandiño is a native Galician who has always worked in the region...

Pazo Señorans, Selección de Añada 2008
Soledad (Marisol) Bueno is as iconic in Rías Baixas as her wine...

Maior de Mendoza, 3 Crianzas 2012
A vivid, youthful style, full of energy despite a few years of age...

Valmiñor, O Rosal 2015
Gloriously aromatic with jasmine and flint notes; very scented.

Gran Vinum, Esencia Diviña 2015
Intense, citrus fruit nose with white peach and grass tones....

Quinta de Couselo, Selección 2011
Perfumed nose with hints of nuts and yeast and a slightly evolved fruit character.

Tricó, Albariño 2012
Complex nose of mineral and cream with a palate that opens with an explosion of fruit and crisp, driving acidity.

Angel Sequeiros, Foudre 2011
Creamy, spicy nose with a hint of lees and biscuit...

Laureatus, Val do Salnés 2014
Grass, lemon and orange peel nose with a hint of asparagus...

Paco & Lola, Val do Salnés 2015
Ripe apricot and citrus aromas on the nose, full of stone fruit typicity....

Terras Gauda, O Rosal 2015
Delicate, attractive nose with floral and citrus expressions...