Iberian appellation inspires exploration

Expand your taste horizons with an affordable albariño white from Spain

I receive boxes of wine every week to taste for this column and I can’t taste them all.

But every now and then I taste a wine that simply floors me and when I look it up on SAQ.com, there are very few wines left in the system. That was the case with the 2016 Rias Baixas Abadia de San Campio. Few white wines under $20 have impressed me as much as this one.

I promise to keep an eye out for this under-$20 wonder when it returns, but what it did was inspire me to re-discover one of

Spain’s top white wine appellations, Rias Baixas, and its local grape variety, albariño. As we head into full-on summer, there’s no better time to expand your taste horizons in white wines.

The albariño grape has begun to spread across the wine world, and I have tasted great examples from California to Australia. But its home is the northern tip of the Iberian Peninsula where it is grown both in Portugal and Spain. The Portuguese version, where the grape is known as alvarinho, is well-known in Quebec as it is used as part of the blend in the light and slightly fizzy wines of Vinho Verde.

But across the border in Spain’s Rias Baixas, the grape takes on a much different incarnation. These are wines that I find are much closer to a Chablis in style. You get a little bit of everything. The fruit is nuanced with apple and stone fruit. There’s moderate acidity and freshness, though with just a touch of fat wrapped around the core of the wine. The better examples can also show a delicate minerality.

The wines rarely see the inside of an oak barrel, again, much like Chablis. The texture can vary from wine to wine depending on how long the winemaker decides to leave the wine on its “lees.” The lees are dead yeast cells that float to the bottom of the tank after fermentation, and by stirring them periodically, a process called “bâttonage,” the wine will gain extra texture in the midpalate, as well as spicy notes on the finish.

There are some excellent examples available at the SAQ. For lighter versions under $20, try the 2017 Lolo or the 2016 Paco and Lola. These wines are great as an apéritif or with lighter seafood and salads.

The richer versions can easily handle fish and those served with sauces, and the mineral aspect makes them a perfect match for most seafood like lobster. The 2015 Lagar de Cervera is exceptional at $27 as is the 2016 Attis, Genio y Figura.

You can hear Bill Zacharkiw pair wine with rock on CHOM-FM (97.7) on Fridays at 7:47 a.m. Twitter/BillZacharkiw