The Indescribability of Albariño

Albariño (al-bar-EEN-yo) is the great white grape of Rías Baixas in the province of Galicia in northwestern Spain. Albariños are light, snappy, dry white wines with terrific crispness. They aren’t full-bodied like most chardonnays, they aren’t green like a lot of sauvignon blancs, and they aren’t as fruity as rieslings can be. Rather, albariños have their own clean, fresh character with just a hint of peaches or almonds. Because fishing is the major industry in Galicia, it comes as no surprise that albariños are made with seafood in mind. Throw some shrimp on the grill, open a bottle, and you’ll see just what we mean.

As of this year’s harvest in Italy, the Prosecco DOC laws will be revised to allow for the creation of rosé Prosecco. What grape variety will be used to make “Pink Prosecco” pink?

A. Corvina

B. Pinot Noir

C. Cabernet Franc

D. Sangiovese

While corvina and cabernet franc both grow in the Veneto region where Prosecco is made, the red grape of choice for Pink Prosecco will be pinot noir, which also grows there. Up until now, Prosecco has always been a white sparkling wine based 85% on the indigenous grape glera, with smaller amounts of the white grapes bianchetta trevigiana, chardonnay, perera, pinot blanc, pinot grigio, and verdiso added, plus the red grape pinot noir. The catch was that the pinot noir had to be made into a white wine before it could be used in the Prosecco blend. With the change in the DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata), pinot noir will be allowed to be made into a red wine which will then be allowed to be added to the blend, turning the Prosecco pink.

Gyropalette

Also called a girasol, Spanish for “sunflower,” gyropalette is a piece of equipment used in the production of sparkling wine made by the traditional method (where the second fermentation takes place in the bottle) like Champagne. To… Continue reading

The Indescribability of Albariño

Get WineSpeed