August is Albariño Month here at The Wines of Galicia, dedicated to celebrating Galicia’s most famous grape. You can do a deep dive on winesofgalicia.com, but for those of you loathe to leave the comfort of Substack (or maybe those of you finding this through Substack if the algorithm is kind to me), here are some fast facts.
Albariño is the most-cultivated white grape in Galicia. It’s most associated with D.O. Rías Baixas, but it’s also planted in Ribeiro, Monterrei, Valdeorras, and Ribeira Sacra as a complementary variety. In Portugal, it’s one of the primary grapes of Vinho Verde, where it’s spelled Alvarinho.
Albariño has high levels of terpenes, which makes it intensely aromatic. Terpenes are natural chemicals found in plants that give them their smell—they’re what make oranges smell citrusy and pine trees smell piney. In wine, terpenes contribute floral, fruity, and herbal aromas and flavors. Albariño is a super-terpenic variety—a study of Albariño, Riesling, Muscadelle, and Sauvignon Blanc showed that Albariño was the richest in terpenes, specifically compounds such as linalool, geraniol, nerol, limonene, β-citronellol, α-terpineol, 4-terpineol and Ho-trienol. But it’s not just terpenes: Albariño can smell like fruit and flowers (green apple, lemon, lime, apricot, peach, orange blossom), mussel shells, grass, white pepper, or even tropical fruit (pineapple, mango, banana).
Albariño presents very differently depending on where it’s from. In Rías Baixas, the cooler, wetter Val do Salnés makes wines with a greener, more saline profile, while the warmer inland Condado do Tea makes riper, more unctuous wines with aromas of honeysuckle and mandarin oranges in syrup.
Albariño doesn’t come from France or Germany. One of the most-repeated myths about Albariño is that monks from Cluny brought Albariño to Galicia along the Camino de Santiago, replanting vines as part of their pilgrimage. Another popular tale connects the grape’s origins with its name. The idea behind this theory is that Alba, meaning white in Latin, and Rin, for Rhine, would make Albariño a “white of the Rhine.” Both are nice stories, but totally false. Albariño comes from the word albar, or “white” in the Galician language, and the Galician diminutive “-iño”.
Albariño is most likely native to northwestern Iberia. In 2020, researchers from the Misión Biológica de Galicia discovered grape seeds preserved in amber at an archeological dig excavating Roman ruins near Vigo. When they compared the seeds with modern ones, they were shocked at the similarity between the Roman grapes and modern-day Albariño grapes. This gives weight to the theory that the Romans arrived to Galicia and got down to business taming the wild grapes they found there, which evolved through the years into the Albariño we have today.
The consensus among top winemakers is that its yields have been allowed to become too high. Today the authorized yield for Albariño in Rías Baixas is 12,000 kilos per hectare, but it’s clear that Albariño becomes more expressive at much lower yields than this.
Albariño can get old. Very old: there are vines in Rías Baixas that are documented as being over 200 years old, and some might even be close to three centuries old. The region’s sandy soils meant phylloxera didn’t really take hold, so many of the old vines are also pie franco, or own-rooted.
You should be aging your Albariño. We drink our Albariño way too young, and even entry-level examples can benefit from a bit of bottle aging. The best examples can display Riesling-level aromas of TDN and showcase amazing evolved aromas and flavors.