This month the #worldwinetravel group is exploring Rías Baixas, home of the beloved white wine albariño. If you love refreshing, high-acidity white wines, you’ll want to keep reading.
Green Spain & Galicia
Galicia is located in the northwest corner of Spain and is perhaps best known for its capital, Santiago de Compostela, the final destination of the Camino de Santiago, one of the greatest pilgrimages in the world.
Being a coastal area, Galicia boasts 1,498 km of coastline and over 700 beaches, and you can bet that seafood plays a major role in the region’s cuisine (we’ll come back to that later). Galicia is also part of an area dubbed “Green Spain” which covers a strip along Northern Spain from the Atlantic coast to the border with France. It owes its colourful name to the lush vegetation resulting from its wet, temperate oceanic climate.
With such a perfect climate for growing, it stands to reason that grapes also do well here. Galicia’s grape-growing region is called Rías Baixas (pronounced ree-as by-shas). The name means “lower estuaries” in the Galician language, because the area is made up of a series of estuarine inlets, little fingers of tidal wetlands that curve into the land.
Rías Baixas
Rías Baixas is a small wine-growing region famous for its crisp white wines. This figures, since only 1% of grapes planted here are red, so good luck finding a red wine from this wine region.
As we’ve mentioned, this area is known for its rainfall (Green Spain, remember). Rías Baixas gets showered with 1700 mm of annual rainfall, about three times the Spanish national average. As a result, vineyard mildew can be a problem. That’s why vines are trained on overhead pergolas 5-7 ft above ground called “parras”. This gives the canopy lots of exposure to sunshine while protecting the grapes from rain and letting the breeze get right underneath the vines for aeration. So it’s surprising that grapes are generally hand-harvested here. Harvesting is already back-breaking work, but when you’re working overhead, that just adds a whole new level to harvester aches and pains. Pass the aspirin!
Albariño
Rías Baixas is synonymous with albariño. This thick-skinned white grape accounts for a whopping 96% of all plantings in this region, and has been grown here for over 1000 years. This star grape is so important to the region that it even has its own annual festival the first week of August, in the town of Cambados.
In 1980, the grape became protected under the appellation Denominación Específica Albariño. After Spain joined the EU, which recognized wine-producing areas rather than specific products, the Denominación de Origen Rías Baixas was approved in 1988, protecting the quality of wines made in the region using native permitted grape varieties.
The area’s temperate climate is perfect for growing albariño – its average annual temperature is a mere 13°C, which helps maintain the grape’s racy acidityAcidity is an important part of a wine’s structure that prevents a wine from being “flabby”. It’s what gives you that tingling sensation on your tongue and makes you salivate.... More.
Albariño is also grown in Portugal, which is separated from Galicia only by the narrow Miño River. In Portugal, it is known as alvarinho, and is a key grape in Vinho Verde, but the two are definitely the same grape.
Albariño is incredibly versatile and can be the subject of many different winemaking styles, including aging in stainless steel tanks or barrels, or even in a sparkling style. The grape has delightful floral aromas, and stonefruitA hoity-toity way of saying peach or apricot. and grapefruit flavours.
Are you intrigued yet? Next week I’ll be taking a virtual trip to Rías Baixas. Stay tuned for tastings of three different albariños from Rías Baixas in Part 2!
The #worldwinetravel group has had a blast exploring Rías Baixas albariños this past week. Check out what my fellow wine travellers had to say!
- Steve at Children of the Grape shares Troubadours, Love, and Wine.
- Terri at Our Good Life discusses One Grape: Three Unique Experiences with Albarino.
- Andrea at The Quirky Cork writes about Albariño and Bacon: A Love Affair.
- Lynn at Savor the Harvest recommends A Region and Wine You Must Explore: Rias Baixas and Albariño.
- Jeff from Food Wine Click! shares A Tale of Two Rias Baixas Albarinos.
- Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm talks about My Virtual Trip to Rias Baixas.
- Allison and Chris at ADVineTURES discuss The White Wines of Rias Baixas.
- Nicole from Somm’s Table shares It’s Raining Rias Baixas.
- Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla pairs Sopa de Cebolla + 2020 Fillaboa Albariño.
- Martin from ENOFYLZ Wine Blog talks about Bodegas Zarate; Setting the Standard for Rias Baixas Albarino – Then and Now.
- David at Cooking Chat pairs Pan Seared Sea Bass with Albariño.
- Jennifer at Vino Travels shares Refresh Your Palate with Rias Baixas Albarino.
- Melanie from Wining with Mel takes a Wine Romp Through Rias Baixas in Galicia, Spain.
- Rupal from Syrah Queen has Your Passport To Rias Baixas – Explore Three Incredible Albarinos.
- Susannah at Avvinare posts Rias Baixas – Green Spain Entices.
- Gwendolyn from Wine Predator shares From California’s Camino Real to Galicia’s Camino de Santiago: All Aboard for Albariño 2!
- Liz at What’s In That Bottle? says Pack Your Bags: We’re off to Rias Baixas for an Albariño Adventure.
- Linda, your host, from My Full Wine Glass offers 5 Things that Might Surprise You About Rías Baixas, Home of Albariño.
Can’t wait to read Part 2, Mel. Have fun on your virtual trip!
Thanks for arranging all this, Linda!
I hope you have so much fun on the virtual trip! Great primer on the region!
Thanks! I will report back in Part 2!
Your bags are packed, you’re ready to go. Standing there outside the door…..It was such a great trip….
Ack now I’m going to have that song stuck in my head!! Thanks for reading, Wendy!
Great photo… with your bag packed, right?!? If a producer uses parras vine training, I call that arm and shoulder breaking work, yikes!
Yup bag is packed and have my rain coat and umbrella ready to go!
Great post!!
Thank you! I might even taste some wines for the next one!
Thanks for reading, Gill! Have you ever been to this part of Spain?
Drove through Vigo on my way to Portugal, that’s about it. Would love to explore the region properly!
Great post Mel–I love albariño!!! The Lolo one at the LCBO is delicious and a relative bargain, but the best one I ever tasted is called Alba Vega–LCBO had it last year, but now it’s unfortunately nowhere to be found. Can’t wait for Part 2 of this post!