This wine brings us back to Spain’s northwest Atlantic Coast, to the small fishing town of Cambados in Rías Baixas, where I travelled with my fiancé last year. Being in this village is like going back in time: large groups of foragers, mostly women, storm the beaches at low tide to scoop cockles, clams, and any other sea creatures crawling through the shallow waters, sometimes hundreds of yards from shore. The summer months see some sunshine, but rainfall is a way of life here.
In the vineyards surrounding this sandy, salty town, we find the birthplace of Albariño, or what’s aptly referred to by the locals as “the wine of the sea.” This briny, fresh, floral 2015 “Doelas” Albariño from Lagar de Costa, clocking in at a mere $22, is a textbook example. If you have fallen in love with Austria’s Grüner Veltliner, like most of the wine world, this wine will strike a similar chord. To my mind, Rías Baixas Albariño has evolved from “unique regional specialty” to “serious white wine” in the course of just a few vintages, as more producers release wines that truly evoke this special place (as opposed to wines that have been engineered to be sweeter and more ‘international’ in style). Prices, however, have not caught up—allowing us all to stock up! This is the latest of several Albariños to really impress us here at SommSelect, and I’d put Rías Baixas among our top five value-for-dollar wine regions in the world right now.
Rías Baixas is a relatively new DO, but don’t let that fool you. White wines from this region, mostly made from the Albariño grape, are some of the best coming out of Spain. They vary depending on sub-region, but all lean toward a fresh, stone fruit, melon character with floral aromatics and a salty, mineral backbone. The Lagar de Costa “Doelas” comes from Val do Salnés, a sub-region that sits directly on the coast of the Atlantic inside a small estuary, so it is slightly protected from the elements. Val do Salnés is the wettest region in all of Rías Baixas. Cool temperatures combined with the salty air give the wines a briny minerality and a fresh floral component that is unmatched, and when you taste them you realize why Val do Salnés houses the highest concentration of bodegas in Rías Baixas. Vines are grown on sandy granitic soils, with small parcels of limestone, the perfect catalyst to trap aromatics while offering proper drainage for the high rainfall of the region. High winds blow in from the Atlantic to combat rot and mildew, which are common side effects of such a wet climate.
Lagar de Costa has been a family-owned winery for three generations, and from vineyard to bodega, the family oversees each part of the winemaking process. The vineyards are planted all the way to the coastline of the Atlantic, and are locked in on either side by dense forest. The family focuses purely on Albariño varietal, and many of their vines are more than 50 years old. Vineyards sit at a mere 30 meters above sea level, and vines are trained to let the Atlantic winds blow through easily, drying the grapes as needed.
In true Val do Salnés fashion, the 2015 Lagar de Costa “Doelas” offers one of the most refreshing and delicious glasses of wine you will find anywhere in the world. The wine exhibits a pale golden yellow core with heavy green highlights throughout. The nose is powerful and focused, with notes of hard yellow peach, honeydew melon, green apple core, salt preserved meyer lemon and wet stones. The palate is medium bodied, with flavors which mirror the nose along with a refreshing salt-tinged mineral finish which seems to go on for minutes. This wine is best to consume young and fresh, ideally before 2018, at around 50 degrees. And as you might have gathered by now, I’d serve it with simply prepared seafood dishes and salads, or live as the locals do and pair with fresh clams, scallops or any other mollusks you can find burrowing about. When I was there last year I enjoyed a wine nearly identical to this with Percebes, a local specialty made from steamed barnacles harvested from where the waves crash onto the dangerous rocks. It was one of the greatest food and wine experiences of my life! I doubt you will find any here in the US, so I have attached a recipe for my second favorite thing I had travelling in the region,
Galician Octopus, which you easily can recreate at home with only a few simple ingredients. My mouth is watering just thinking about it—and this terrific Albariño. Make sure to invite your best friends over to share this unique Galician experience. Cheers!
