Robe — Pale straw with green glints, bright as Atlantic light
white peach
grapefruit
lemon zest
sea spray
green apple
Palate
Stone fruit sharpened by Atlantic acidity, finishing on a lick of salt
Ageing
1–5 years
Serving
8–10 °C, with shellfish
In Galicia, the green, rain-washed corner of north-west Spain, albariño grows on stone-pillared pergolas, lifted above the damp ground, looking down on the rías — the drowned river valleys where some of Europe's best shellfish is raised. The village of Cambados has held an albariño festival since 1953, when the wine was a local pride barely known beyond the province.
The Rías Baixas denomination arrived in 1988, and within a generation the wine travelled from that festival to the fish restaurants of the world: white peach and grapefruit over a saline snap, the natural partner of oysters, clams and octopus drawn from the same cold water the vines overlook.