Forget all you knew about Albariño!
For many the "Prima Donna" of Galician viticulture, this variety is destined to shape some of the greatest classical cuvées of the future.
To understand what Albariño is, we have to delve into the western corner of the Iberian Peninsula, Galicia. A green and humid area, daughter of the Atlantic, that is postulated as Albariño's motherland.
Due to the development of the St. James' Trail, the hypothesis that Albariño was a distant relative or a direct descendant of Riesling gained followers. In fact, etymologically Albariño means the white wine (alba-) from the Rhine (-riño). For years, we were convinced that the grape was brought by the Cistercian or the Cluny monks, either from France or Germany.
Today, we know that this is not the case. Not so long ago, carbon-14 analysis revealed that the first seeds of Albariño date back somewhere between the 2nd and the 4th centuries AD, meaning that the predecessor of Albariño was already present in Roman Galicia, being Albariño possibly the result of its hybridization with other local wild native varieties.
The Salnés Valley (one of Rías Baixas' sub-regions) is historically the most important area for the production of Albariño. The name "Salnés" comes from the fact that El Grove was an island in Roman times, where salt mines were exploited. When the sea level dropped and El Grove became a peninsula, many places that were under the Atlantic are now vineyards growing in granite soils bathed in salt. The Armenteira Monastery is precisely located in this region, an enclave of great importance for Albariño, as it is thought that its monks surely gave a push to its cultivation. Albariño was grown exclusively in the monasteries until the 19th century, when, after the Mendizábal's confiscation, religious orders lost their power and the landowners behind the local "pazos" (the Galician equivalent to a French château) started to plant it too because it was considered a grape of "status and distinction" reserved for special occasions.
Thus, Albariño is indigenous and, as such, it has been produced in the area since ancient times. However, we cannot yet confirm if Salnés is its birthplace or if it originated somewhere pretty close by, as Albariño not only grows in Rías Baixas but it also does in Ribeiro, Ribeira Sacra, Barbanza, Asturias, Vinho Verde... The map below showcases the old Kingdom of Galicia and, as you can see, all the regions mentioned before are enclosed within the same boundaries, for which it's logical to think that we shared not only a political patrimony but viticultural too.
Before the 80s
Given today's popularity, the following statement might sound a bit surprising to many, but Albariño was traditionally not the most widely planted grape in the Salnés, where it represented around 2% of the total plantings, as the vineyards were dominated mainly by red varieties like Espadeiro, Loureiro, or Caíño Tinto. Albariño was locally consumed and poorly exported. It was produced to a limited extent by landowners, priests, well-to-do peasants, and farmers who had a more balanced diet. It was the greater esteem for this white wine that led to a series of revolutions in the Salnés Valley that increasingly translated into bigger productions.
Albariño was a very scarce and expensive commodity, which is why it served as a currency of exchange between the upper class from Spain and the Galician vinegrowers, as it cost 2 or 3 times more than the local thin and acidic red wines. We need to understand that after the Spanish Civil War, society wasn't experiencing a flamboyant economic moment. On the contrary, people were subsisting as they best could. Everyone in the area was interested in getting into business by replanting their vineyards with Albariño to the detriment of local reds. The rest is history, as this varietal now represents 96% (according to the D.O.) of the total vineyard plantation in Rías Baixas.
The 80s
Galicia was an agricultural and livestock society, and wine was produced mainly for self-consumption since it was an important part of their diet. Albariño was cultivated, therefore, as a form of sustenance in very small plots of land (smallholding was and still is dominant here). If there was a surplus, it was sold in barrels to the local merchants and restaurants, to later be served straight from ceramic jars into the traditional cuncas (ceramic cups). Bottled trade was virtually non-existent.
When the 80s arrived, they brought an entrepreneurial mentality. Local vinegrowers realized that to make the industry of Albariño profitable, what they needed was not so much to incorporate technology as to learn the technique, that is, to acquire the technical knowledge that would lead them to produce good wines. The only problem with this is that the generation behind those first wines was not a traveling one, and instead of going out to visit what was done in the great classical regions, the neighbouring wineries copied each other, and they even shared the same oenologists in some cases, thus standardizing the industry.
The total production during D.O. Rias Baixas' first vintage (1988) was approximately 500,000 bottles, very little compared to what it is nowadays (37,319,804 in 2022). This commercial success was led by the massive plantation of this grape variety all around the region, even in soils that have never been planted with vineyards, soils that were more fertile and suitable for other crops like corn, potatoes, or cereals. As a direct consequence of that, very few old vineyards of Albariño remain in the area.
This small industrialization of minifundia led to massive production, and the oenological and biotechnological processes started to be imposed on terroir. Winemakers were aiming to produce a commercial wine because what was of true interest was to let the world get familiar with Albariño and understand what this variety was.
The 2010s
It was in this decade that locals began to see the first generational replacement of winemakers taking place. This second generation has been concerned with studying and training not only at home but abroad, traveling and tasting some of the greatest terroir-driven wines. When they returned home to take over the reins of their family wineries, since they already mastered the technique, they allowed themselves to be much more intuitive in search of the intrinsic purity, not of the variety, but of the terroir.
Names like Eulogio Pomares (Zárate), Rodri Méndez (Forjas del Salnés), Xurxo Alba (Albamar), Chicho Moldes (Fulcro), Pedro Méndez, Do Ferreiro, Nanclares y Prieto, Eido da Salgosa, Vimbio, Tricó, Bodegas Carballal, Iria Otero, Lagar de Pintos, José Crusat (Adega Entre Ríos, in Barbanza), Mixtura, Atrium Vitis (in Ribeira Sacra), Anónimas Wines, Begoña Troncoso, Constantina Sotelo, Adega Sergio Álvarez, Cabana das Bolboretas, Torgo, Marcial Dorado, Márcio Lopes, Fernando Paiva (Quinta da Palmirinha), & Luís Seabra, among others represent that new wave of change not only in Rías Baixas but in other Galician regions and Portugal too.
Albariño's DNA
Talking Albariño is talking about a variety that has a thick skin that generates abundant bloom, a white mantle with a powdery texture that covers the skin of the grape. It is a translucent wax that works as a natural protector for the fruit since it prevents insects from easily attacking the fruit, it is a natural sunscreen, and, in addition, in a region as humid and rainy as Galicia, it works as a waterproof cloak.
Albariño shares a lot of chromosomes with Caiño Tinto, therefore, its chemical profile results in a high phenolic character, which gives it an astringency and bitterness that translates into varietal identity. It is also a glyceric variety, giving smoothness, volume, a slight sweetness, and a silky mouthfeel to the final wines.
It is a variety with a high natural acid backbone (between 7.2 g/L and 14.3 g/L), considered a defect in old times; now we know that this constitutes the perdurability of the variety in time, endowing the wines with great longevity. The hard granite rock where the vines grow also helps the wine to acquire the capacity to live in time for 10 to 25 years.
Its resistance to fungal diseases is not great, so the traditional system of conducting the vine in "emparrado or pergola" is the most appropriate because it allows the flow of oceanic breezes, which helps reduce fungal pressure.
Being a fairly productive variety, it is super vigorous, means that intensive work is required in the vineyard to produce quality. The yields allowed by the D.O. are stipulated at 12 thousand kilos per hectare; however, the expressiveness in the wines is achieved when those yields are lowered below 9 thousand kilos per hectare.
Its vegetative cycle is quite long, which favors the terpenic nature of the variety. This means that it is a variety endowed with great expressiveness. Watch out! I'm talking about expressiveness, not exuberance; it's not the same. Expressiveness is understood as its aromatic complexity since it encompasses a large number of aromatic families. With this last concept in mind, there are two production philosophies when making an Albariño:
1) The one that takes the path of aromatic exuberance, exploiting Albariño's thiolic profile. There is only one problem, Albariño is not a thiolic grape. Thiols are volatile sulfur compounds that are responsible for most of the tropical fruit aromas (papaya, passion fruit, pineapple, mango, banana skin... you name it). This profile was, and still is, highly demanded by the national market, which is why thiols became very present in Galician Albariños, causing them to lose their typicity and to homogenize their nature. How do you get that thiolic nature out? Very simply, winemakers depend on the use of artificial yeasts capable of creating sulfur compounds during fermentation; they increase if fermented at low temperatures. Albariño has never smelled of a tropical fruit salad! If you come across an exponent like this, bear in mind that someone has manipulated it. Better to return the bottle and order something else instead.
2) The path of austerity, that is, the one that seeks to respect the terpenic nature of the variety, only in this way can it be possible to make wines that speak of terroir. Terpenes are found in the skins of grapes, so cold macerations are important. This wide aromatic palette will allow us to find things like apples, mirabelle plums, citrus peel, bergamot, fresh quinces, apricot skin, peaches, white stone fruits, blossoming white flowers, chamomile, hay, honeysuckle, flint, salinity, seaweed, and oyster shells.
Creating the great classic cuvées of tomorrow
Today, we are realizing that we have been drinking Albariño far too young, and although young Albariños are extraordinary, we are missing out on many nuances that are only appreciated over time. That is why we have spent almost two decades with a mentality oriented towards crafting cuvées designed to evolve. Only in this way will Albariño be able to rub shoulders with the finest white wines of the world.
It's ironic to see how the industrialization of winemaking in Rias Baixas translated into the usage of stainless steel to produce wine. Traditionally, Albariño was pressed in granite presses and made in chestnut barrels. Today, there are a few winemakers who are experimenting again with this type of wood and other vessels such as cement, granite, clay, demijohns, and big foudres.
Looking positively into the future, the trend begins to move towards the production of Albariños with longer aging on their fine lees, thus crafting wines suitable for aging either using a reductive environment (stainless steel) or an oxidative one (porous vessels). This change of mentality began to take place when bottles of old vintages of Albariños that were not thought to age over time began to be uncorked, being pleasantly surprised by how many of those wines withstood the test of time, becoming something extraordinary. An evolutive Albariño develops nuances such as quince jelly, dried stone fruits, butterscotch, honeycomb, roasted nuts, & crème brûlée.
The Albariño of yesteryear began to be consumed in July / August. As we saw at the beginning, those rural vinegrowers who made wine for their own consumption used to make Albariño in barrels without any type of temperature control. Once fermentation was finished, the variety's high natural acidity was considered negative, so the wine was left to "rest" in the barrel until summertime because, right then, the wine was much more drinkable. They trusted their taste because they didn't have the technical knowledge to understand that malolactic fermentation kicked in when temperatures started to get hotter. Today, that is one of the big questions: malolactic, yes or no?
I will answer this in a very Galician way: It depends.
It should not be forgotten that the energy of each of the vignerons is an important part of terroir, so Malolactic will depend very much on the taste of each of the winemakers.
If we had to give a categorical answer, generally speaking, it is customary to let the wine undergo malolactic fermentation when a cuvée thought to last over time is crafted, because, after the fourth or fifth year, these wines are pure complexity, the acid integrates perfectly, transforming that tense backbone into pure silk. Early-drinking wines normally do not go through malolactic fermentation because they leave very yogurty nuances. However, some producers like to respect that part of the tradition and make wines for more immediate consumption in this way.
Where should we move forward?
As you can see, Albariño is a far more complex reality than the one portrayed in some of the wine books around. If we want this varietal to be playing at the top league, local winemakers should start focusing all their energies on promoting the sub-regions, the villages, and the single vineyards; but this is already a topic of conversation for another post.
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