The ideal wine for seafood, Galicia’s crisp, clean albariño isn’t exactly cheap, but find the right producer, and it’ll be worth every penny.

If  you’ve been watching the temperatures in Spain climb into the high 30Cs in recent weeks, you might assume the whole country is hot and dry, but that’s far from the case in Rias Baixas on the Galician coast. Part of the cool, often rainy area that is known as “green Spain”, the region is also home to the green albariño grape, which you’ll find on almost every self-respecting wine list these days. Pure, mineral and saline, as befits its proximity to the sea, albariño has become so popular, it is now the go-to white to drink with seafood.

Yields are low and demand insatiable, however, so prices are now on the high side. Even supermarket own-label isn’t cheap, unless it’s on promotion.

Cheaper albariños tend to taste fruitier, and more like a sauvignon blanc, which you might as well buy if that’s the style you’re looking for. That said, the Castro Martin in today’s pick below is delicious. Albariño is usually sold young and unoaked, but it does age impressively, something white wine-producing regions are keen to stress to persuade us to invest in their top cuvées. But, with a few exceptions, I prefer it in its first two or three years, especially if I’m drinking it with shellfish.

There are a number of sub-regions, of which the most important are Val do Salnés, O Rosal and Condado do Tea. Each has its own distinct characteristics, but, to be honest, unless you’re a real albariño geek, it’s more useful to focus on the producer

Albariño is also being planted elsewhere: the enterprising Languedoc producer Laurent Miquel makes a good one, for instance, while it has also become the signature white wine of Uruguay, though you won’t find it any cheaper there than in Rias Baixas.  There are also a growing number of plantings in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, though those I’ve tasted so far lack the seductive salinity of the ones from Rias Baixas

Beckett. F., (2023), The inexorable rise of albariño, Galicia’s star grape.  Sourced: http://tinyurl.com/254lks4o