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 two whites from the Atlantic coast of Spain, from arguably two of the very best producers in the region.

Nanclares y Prieto (Alberto Nanclares and 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. Their "entry-level" Albariño, Dandelion, is a spectacular value, especially in 2023, when the devastating growing season prevented Alberto and Silvia from making most of their single-vineyard bottlings. Instead, they put almost all of their fruit into the Dandelion, making it a particularly layered and complex expression in 2023!

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. The Albamar name comes from not only Xurxo's last name, but also the phrase al alba del mar (by the sea shore). This flagship bottling is one of our absolute favorite Albariños year after year.