Far from the arid plateaus of the Ribera del Duero, or the steep slate and shale slopes of Priorat, and across the palate from husky, structured red wines, comes the crisp and refreshing Albariño, produced along the wild coasts and rías (inlets) of southwestern Galicia. Made from an eponymous grape grown in the Rías Baixas, the lower section of Spain’s Atlantic coast to the north of Portugal, this is one of the country’s most pleasant, easiest drinking wines.
It is an ancient, regional vino, dating perhaps as far back as Roman times, two thousand years ago, though at least to the twelfth century, when records show Cistercian monks making Albariño wine near Cambados. In the 1980s and 1990s, the industry exploded in popularity, taking Albariño from a local wine to a national, and global, one.
Still today, you find dense pockets of vines behind houses and three-hundred-year-old pazos (stone manor houses), rather than undulating hills of vineyards. The small, thick-skinned grape is planted on tall granite pylons and trestles 6 or 8 feet/2 or 2.5 m high. This keeps the grapes off the moist ground while allowing them to catch more ocean breezes. By allowing the air to circulate like this, it better dries away the moisture, avoids rot, and exposes the tight clusters of ripening grapes to more sunshine.
The resulting wines are bright and refreshing, with touches of minerals and often hints of stone fruits—peaches, apricots, nectarines—citruses, and melons, and with aromas of wildflowers and honeysuckle. These are springy wines meant to be drunk young.
Perhaps not coincidentally, they are perfectly paired with the region’s even more celebrated seafood. A chilled glass of Albariño with a plate of grilled razor clams (see page 195), steamed cockles (see page 198), baked scallops (see page 201), or a half-dozen shucked oysters from Soutomaior is one of the country’s coastal highlights.