Scientists crack mystery of how Spain's prized albariño wine came to be
Myths, mysteries and legends surround the origin of albariño, widely regarded as Spain’s finest white wine, and how the grape from which it derives wound up in the far north-west of the country.
Now scientists at a research institute in Galicia have debunked theories that it originates in the Rhine valley or was brought by French Cistercian monks on pilgrimage from Cluny in the 12th century.
The grape, they said, is native to the region and albariño wine has been produced there since Roman times.
“We were already sure it didn’t come from the Rhine,” said Carmen Martínez, the head of viticulture at the biological research centre in Pontevedra. “Studies show that there is nothing like it in the Rhine valley, not even under another name.”
Martínez said they believed the grape derives from a woodland vine that over the years became domesticated. “There are no examples of albariño vines hundreds of years old anywhere in the world except Galicia,” she said.
In a joint study carried out with the history department of the University
of Santiago de Compostela, the researchers compared seeds from one medievaland two Roman sites in Galicia with cultivated and wild varieties from other parts of Spain.
The albariño seeds shared important characteristics with the seeds found at both the Roman and medieval sites, suggesting the variety may have been grown as long ago as Roman times.
The seeds found at O Areal, the only Roman salt flats still in existence, were very similar to albariño.
“This shows that the Romans were domesticating wild vines, which are the origin of these cultivated varieties,” Martínez said.
Ideally, the researchers would like to compare the cultivated with the woodland variety, but Martínez thought that would be impossible.
“We doubt that we will find any here in Galicia because the native woodlands were replaced with eucalyptus,” she said. “Also, mildew, which arrived here from America, found the perfect conditions for it to thrive.”
The next step is to carry out DNA tests, but meanwhile Martínez said the research has shed light on how vine came to the Iberian peninsula.
“One theory is that the vine came from Asia, the second that in various parts of Europe wild vines were domesticated,” she said. “This research helps to confirm the second hypothesis.”
She added that comparative studies carried out by her institute suggest that wine seeds of other varieties retrieved from archaeological sites are similar to varieties currently grown in the region.
Most of the albariño comes from the Rías Baixas in the south of Galicia. The vines are typically trained over pergolas or wires to keep them away from the damp ground. The grapes are small, hardly bigger than a pea, and the vineyards are also small, often just a plot of a few dozen vines. The harvest is all done by hand.
In 2019 the Spanish association of wine writers voted the albariño Martín Códax Lías the best white in Spain.
Varieties of albariño are also produced in Portugal, the US, France and New Zealand.