Albariños for the Dog Days of Summer!

8/6/22 -

Here we are in those sultry days of August, when our wine inclinations lean towards anything cold, and the food pairing and pure refreshment value of clean, mineral white wines is paramount. As honorary Muscadet Ambassadors, we are known to extol the virtues of the whites from the Pays Nantais, but today we focus our attention on some exceptional whites from the Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal. A similarity between all of these wines, of course, is the Atlantic influence, and the unique concentration of myriad types of granite, schiste, and slate, all of which lend pronounced minerality to the wines of the area. It should be mentioned that an important factor here is the distinction between vines farmed conventionally with chemical fertilizers vs. organically farmed vineyards with deep root sytems that are able to access the mineral rich bedrock/sub-soil. As you can probably guess given our reputation over the last 21 years, we will be focusing on estates that work with principles of organic and bio-dynamic farming and ferment with native yeast.

Pedralonga is a family run estate in Rias Baixas that has worked organically since the 90's and began employing bio-dynamic methods in 2007. They ferment with wild yeast and have most of their vineyards on granitic slopes. Their whites have always been some of my favorite in the region for their freshness and mineral structure. A recent addition to their offerings has been the very popular 'Serea,' an Albarino from young vines that is very attractively priced at $18.99! 

Xurxo Alba is making a number of expressions of Albariño and other local Galician grapes in Cambados, in the Rías Baixas DOC in Galicia. His farming and winemaking are innovative and experimental, as he pursues organics and biodynamics in this challenging climate, ferments his wines exclusively with native yeasts, and adds little to no sulfur during production. This is an extremely Atlantic-influenced area, and the Albamar wines show that influence clearly.        

Nanclares y Prieto (Alberto Nanclares and his winemaking partner, Silvia Prieto) farm two-and-a-half hectares of scattered plots of pergola trained Albariño around Cambados in Rias Baixas. They produce a range of wines, including serious single vineyard wines from very old vineyards. Yields are kept low, seaweed from the nearby Atlantic is used as fertilizer, and there is no plowing. The same care and attention is taken in the cellar, where Alberto and Silvia avoid additives (other than small amounts of SO2), ferment with indigenous yeasts, and neither fine nor filter the wines. They celebrate the acidic structure of Albariño, eschewing any attempt to deacidify the wines. In their cellar, malolactic fermentation is a rarity, so the wines are defined by their racy, vibrant acidity. 

I can't begin to express my fascination with the crystalline purity and unforgettable structure and length ot the Nanclares y Prieto wines. A longer article about their project can be found here, and we will have a later release this year of their single vineyard expressions, but I do highly recommend these 2021 wines. Alberto is particularly fond of the vintage if that's any indication of how good these wines are and how good they will be with some bottle age.

By no means an attempt at a list, these are simply a few Iberian whites that we absolutely love for this time of year!