Pontecabaleiros ~ Albariño Ferrum Rías Baixas DO 2014

I latched on to the aromatic grape variety, Albariño, a few years ago and have been slowly converting people over to its wines; in my opinion, Albariño is one of the best Spanish still white wines. The Rías Baixas region with its relatively cool (and somewhat damp) climate produces the best examples and the grape is low-yielding which adds to the concentration and complexity of the wines. Albariño is widely regarded as an aromatic grape variety though the wines manage to combine aromatics with crisp minerality and fresh acidity. As this grape is becoming better known, indeed more fashionable, it is going up in price however this one represents very good value for the quality.

The wine

The dry white wine is unoaked and very fragrant - a distinctive peach flesh aroma, apricots and citrus fruits. On the palate the wine is intensely fruity (apples, peaches, citrus and apricots) with some spice and almond notes. There is crisp lime on the finish. With such intense flavours, you might expect this to be a heavy wine but it is light to medium in body and displays the minerality and crisp acidity typical of this quality grape.

Update to tasting note April 2018: this wine is still drinking well and retains its acidity so it remains nice and crisp. The spice and nutty notes are a little more pronounced than when this wine was first tasted. It also has a little more body. The structure and the more developed flavours mean that this wine is definitely a wine to be consumed with food and will now stand up to quite strongly flavoured dishes.