Galicia approaches crossroads for its Albariño

An influx of big-name producers means Rías Baixas is now home to some of the most expensive vineyard plots in Spain. But is the region doing enough to safeguard the quality of its Albariño? Lucy Shaw reports. The secret is out. Having kept its message simple, focusing on one hero grape – Albariño – Rías Baixas, in Spain’s verdant northwest, has prompted copycat bottlings to spring up everywhere from Australia to Kent. Meanwhile, heavyweight Spanish producers, such as Ribera del Duero’s Vega Sicilia and Rioja stalwart Cune, have descended on Rías Baixas’ green and pleasant land, hungry for a slice of the pie and willing to pay for it. While imitation is the highest form of flattery, and having Vega Sicilia and Cune around will boost the region’s reputation, their arrival may impact local producers who have been quietly beavering away in their rainy corner of Spain for decades. As the glare of the limelight grows brighter, might the very people who helped to make Rías Baixas’ name be under threat? The region’s rise as Spain’s premier white wine enclave began in the 1970s. Prior to that, the area was predominantly planted with red varieties sold locally. Spotting Albariño’s potential, José Barros of Maior de Mendoza planted 10 hectares of it in the Salnés Valley sub-zone in 1976, creating the biggest Albariño vineyard in the world at the time. Other producers soon followed suit, and today Rías Baixas is home to 4,374ha of Albariño, spread across 20,000 vineyard plots, managed by more than 5,000 growers and 179 different bodegas.

Shifting power dynamic

As in Burgundy, land ownership in Rías Baixas is incredibly fragmented, but the arrival of big-name players is shifting the power dynamic. “We will likely see a greater concentration of vineyards in the region in the future,” says Marqués de Murrieta president Vicente Dalmau Cebrián-Sagarriga, whose family owns Pazo Barrantes in the Salnés Valley, with roots in Rías Baixas since 1511. “Many winemakers from Rioja have moved to Rías Baixas in search of Albariño, but in our case it was the other way around.” Albariño is best-known for its vibrant citrus and stone fruit expressions, designed to be enjoyed young and pairing perfectly with Galicia’s sublime seafood, but some of the region’s leading producers have been delving deeper into the variety’s capabilities, keen to differentiate themselves with single-vineyard and lees-aged wines. “A lot of consumers underestimate Albariño,” says Catriona Felstead MW, a senior buyer at Berry Bros. & Rudd. “The mistake people make is in thinking that Albariño is an early-drinking wine to enjoy fleetingly in the sunshine. That’s not the case at all; it has huge ageing potential.” Shining a light on site specifics is Mar de Frades, which has been one of the most fervent flag-bearers of Albariño in the region, and the first to release a traditional method sparkling expression of the grape. Among the Mar de Frades range is a trio of single-vineyard Albariños that strive to showcase how the variety behaves in exceptional soils.

Salinity in the glass

“We acquired 30ha of vineyards in 2016, and since then have continued planting and expanding our vineyard area, so that nearly half of our production now comes from our own vineyards,” says winemaker Paula Fandiño, who lees ages her Albariños in granite for four months to enhance their aromatics. For Fandiño, the goal is to make “unique wines with a unique origin” that give consumers a taste of the terroir by capturing the essence of these Atlantic-influenced whites: salinity in the glass.

Granite is also being used to great effect at Familia Torres’ Rías Baixas estate, Pazo Torre Penelas, home to a 6ha walled vineyard and the first Albariño fermented and aged in egg-shaped Galician granite vats. According to winemaker Víctor Cortizo, this helps to amplify the wine’s mouthfeel and “infuse it with salinity” from the bedrock. Market leader Martín Códax produces myriad Albariños, from lees-aged and old-vine offerings to oak-aged and late harvest expressions, via an orange wine and a traditional method sparkler, proving that this zippy white is far from a one-trick pony. “Albariño is a very versatile grape,” says export manager Paula Lobato. “Years of research have given rise to our unique Albariños that reflect the character of the Atlantic coast.”

 

At Pazo Señorans in the Salnés Valley, Albariño’s longevity is highlighted through extended lees ageing, with its top drop, Selección de Añada, spending at least 30 months on its lees. Co-owner Vicky Mareque points out that Albariño’s naturally high acidity makes it an ideal candidate for long-aged wines. For Mareque, extended lees ageing not only brings more depth and complexity to Albariño, it also increases its ageing potential, creating “an intense, textural and structured wine, with notes of quince, dried fruits and graphite that can age for over 20 years”.

Oak-aged Albariño

In 2017, Pazo Señorans started experimenting with oak-aged Albariño, releasing Tras Los Muros, sourced from three separate single vineyards, which spends six months in barrel. Only around 3,000 bottles of this wine are produced each year, making it a niche proposition for ardent Albariño enthusiasts. Even more ambitious in its quest to create the finest expression of Albariño possible, Pazo Barrantes’ top wine, La Comtesse, is aged for six years before hitting the market, where it commands a premium: the 2019 vintage is on sale at London store Harrods for £145. Aged in a mixture of French oak and concrete tanks, the grapes that go into it hail from the 1.4ha Pago Cacheiro, planted in 1965. The wine has become a sommelier favourite, and was selected by Vincenzo Arnese, director of wine at Raffles London at The OWO, as one of the pairings on chef Mauro Colagreco’s tasting menu. “It has a remarkable ability to pair with a wide variety of dishes,” says Arnese, who believes that wines like La Comtesse “highlight the untapped potential of Rías Baixas Albariño, which can shine in fine wine scenarios”. Robert Boutflower, private sales director at independent merchant Tanners, thinks Rías Baixas needs these top-tier wines to elevate the region’s reputation. “The best Albariños, like the pair from Marqués de Murrieta, are reassuringly expensive. Burgundy doesn’t exactly fight shy of raising prices, and I don’t see demand falling off there,” he says.

Stealing market share

While the US has overtaken the UK as the number one export market for Rías Baixas Albariño, accounting for 36% of overseas sales in 2024, demand remains strong in the UK. At Laithwaites, Albariño is proving to be an appealing alternative for customers who have been priced out of Chablis and Sancerre. “Our volume sales have held, despite challenging conditions,” says Laithwaites senior wine buyer Sarah Everden. “There’s more diversity to Rías Baixas Albariño than people realise, from superfresh, grapefruit-scented styles to more textural, lees-aged expressions.” It’s also going down a storm at Sabor in Mayfair, the Michelin-starred tapas bar and Galician grill run by Nieves Barragán. “Albariño has moved from being a seasonal sip to a year-round choice that sells well by the glass,” says assistant general manager Xiao Yi Qiu. “Its innate acidity makes it a perfect match for fish.” But, with rising popularity, corners can be cut, and Sam Hart of Harts Group, which counts Barrafina, El Pastor and Quo Vadis among its London restaurants, believes quality has been compromised in some instances as producers seek to capitalise on demand by ramping up their production. “Twenty years ago, you could almost close your eyes and any Albariño would be a good wine,” he says. “You have to be more discerning now when you’re choosing one to list.”

Laser focused

In order for the region to maintain its strong market position, Eva Minguez Lobato of DO Rías Baixas’ regulatory council believes that bodegas need to remain laser-focused on quality. “Due to the limited size of the DO, we can’t keep growing exponentially in terms of volume, but we can continue to grow in terms of reputation and recognition as we demonstrate our premium credentials,” she explains.

Producers must resist the temptation to rush their wines to market to supply an ever-increasing global thirst for Galician whites. “What Albariño needs to reach its full potential is time, but in the last decade we’ve seen an increase in vineyard yields and new plantings, which means that many wines are being made from very young vines,” laments Vicente Dalmau Cebrián-Sagarriga of Pazo Barrantes. “We need to focus on respecting the Albariño variety and striving to make wines of the highest quality.” It’s a sentiment echoed by Vicky Mareque of Pazo Señorans: “A wine isn’t just a grape; it’s also a climate, a soil and a tradition,” she says. “We must work together as producers to continue to highlight what makes us different.” With the arrival of iconic estates such as Vega Sicilia creating a halo effect, pushing everyone in the region to prioritise the pursuit of excellence, it will be fascinating to see what Rías Baixas does next.