November 20, 2015

FILLABOA Albariño 2013

(Rias Baixas, Spain) $20

Cooking dinner? This is the wine you want to drink while you are cooking. Albariño is not as weighty as chardonnay; not crisply green as sauvignon blanc; not as aromatic as riesling. But it has the merest hint of all these qualities. And the Fillaboa (“good daughter” in Galician) is one of the best. Fresh and lively, it’s got the purity of a cold mountain stream. If you don’t know albariño (now one of Spain’s top white grapes), it’s time to try this.

The first modern wide-scale studies of screw caps for fine wines took place in Australia.

Answer: True.

While screw caps had been used to a small extent in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s (mostly in Europe for ultra-cheap wine), the situation changed radically in the 1990s when Australian vintners undertook the first studies using fine wines. At the time, the incidence of cork taint often ran to 10%, and many Australian winemakers were convinced that they (along with New Zealand winemakers) were often sent the worst batches of Portuguese cork. Subsequently, a group of Clare Valley producers in South Australia pooled their resources and bottled their 2000 rieslings under screw cap. Studies done on the wines revealed that the wines retained an amazing level of freshness over time, showed virtually no bottle variation, and best of all, didn’t get corked. Today, Australia along with New Zealand are considered the two countries that initiated a screw cap revolution.

37 Million

The amount (in US dollars) that the organization Wine, Women & Shoes has helped raise for charity since they held their first in event in Napa Valley in 2005. Sommelier? Maybe. Shoemmelier? Yes, please.

FILLABOA Albariño 2013

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