In support of Albariño
If, like myself, you love the wonderful fruit driven white wines of DO Rías Baixas, Galicia, North West Spain, you may be asking, ‘Does Albariño actually need any support?’ You wouldn’t be alone, either.
If you ask any wine drinking Spaniard belonging to the Baby Boom Generation, which is the best grape variety in Spain for making white wine, it’s an odds on certainty (I’m writing this on Grand National Day!) that she/he would answer Albariño. If Tempranillo has, for decades, been known as Spain’s ‘noble variety’ for red wines, then for sure, Albariño would be its white wine grape equal.
The fragrant, florally scented dry white wines, allied with apricot and peach fruit flavours that come from Albariño, particularly in its natural home in Galicia, have a fresh acidity envied by many other varieties on the Iberian Peninsular. It’s wonderfully crisp and sprightly when young and has a voluptuous presence when aged, unlike so many other Spanish white wine varieties. It’s a perfect pairing for all manner of fish and seafood dishes, as well as being the goto white for aperitifs and for simply sipping with friends.
Clearly it doesn’t need another round of applause!
Well, don’t forget, there’s support, and support. I’m talking here about Albariño’s supporting acts – the white wine varieties with which it can be blended. You see, DO Rías Baixas and indeed Galicia in general, isn’t just about Albariño, delicious though it is!
Readers may recall last week’s Cork Talk, ‘Give us this day our Daily Wine’, where I was writing about inexpensive wines that we always have in the house, for perhaps a daily drink or two. Our own ‘house wines’, if you like! The article was inspired by the Spanish wine magazine, PlanetAVino, which ran a piece recommending some 50 such wines, priced between 4€ - 9.50€ (their ‘ceiling’ for daily wines was 10€).
I enjoyed the two wines highlighted in my article, both priced at the lower end of this scale, at 4:50€. Now’s the turn of one towards the limit of the scale, 8€ - and it was a cracker!
You’ve no doubt guessed that a principle component of the blend of Pazo de Seoane 2018, from the winery Lagar de Fornelos, is Albariño (given the exhaustive intro above, twas ever thus in Cork Talk!) but this wine also has, not one, but three support acts. Furthermore, it could be argued that, the same happened here as occasionally occurs in the music world, where a band which plays in support of the headliner band, is, in the audience’s perception on the night, its equal!
Whilst it’s true that Abariño makes of some 68% of the blend, the backup it receives from the less well known varieties: Caiño, Treixadura and Loureiro, is definitely significant. The wine sings!
Ampelographers (botanists whose expertise is the identification of grape vines) generally agree that Caiño Blanco (there is also a black grape version) was the result of a crossing of Albariño and the black grape variety Azal Tino, in Galicia or Portugal sometime in the 18th Century. It’s grown in Northern Portugal and Galicia, where it is most prevalent on the O Rosal area, near Pontevedra.
The famous Master of Wine Jancis Robinson notes that the variety is often blended with Albariño and provides acidity as well as quite high levels of alcohol and a slightly mineral edge to the finished wine. So, although a very fruity wine, Pazo de Seoane has a touch of minerality too.
Treixadura is a Portuguese variety, whose name over the border is Trajadura, but changes to Treixadura when it’s grown in Spain. It’s a variety that can occasionally be bought as a monovarietal but is most often used as a supporting act, adding body to the wine. There is a slight citrus flavour, and I’m fairly sure that it’s this variety that adds a pineapple skin flavour and aroma to our wine.
The final part of the blend is provided by Loureiro, yes another mouthful to pronounce! Thought to be Spanish originally it is also widely grown in northern Portugal, so it’s perhaps diplomatic to call this variety a native of the north west of the Iberian Peninsular!
It’s Loureiro that provides a lovely floral note to this wine – think orange blossom, which, united with the lovely white stoned fruit of the leading actor, Albariño, as well as Treixadura’s lemony, slightly under ripe pineapple, make this wine a super aperitif.
I’d pair it with fish, rather than shellfish – lemon sole would be a dream with this wine. Enjoy!