Albariño from Maior de Mendoza
My story with Albarino starts from the very start of my business, really. Very, very, very dear friend of mine, Mitch Tonks, has always worked with seafood. And he owned some fabulous restaurants over the years. And with Mitch and myself, we've always worked together on projects, certainly with Albarino. And, we worked with a producer for a number of years, and suddenly that relationship came to an end. But I'm not one to be knocked down. You have to be patient, you have to wait for the right things to happen. And, funnily enough, I had an introduction to these wines from Maior de Mendoza, actually, a year and a half prior to working with them. I didn't take them, because I already had some Albarino in my portfolio. But the opportunity presented itself, and I emailed them, and immediately, they sent over samples.
Maior de Mendoza captured my attention straight away. I have three wines from the entry level, kind of mid to top range, and the top end Albarino. So three wines. And, each one in their own right has its place within restaurants. What I would like you to understand from what I'm sharing today, is that it's a great idea to perhaps purchase Albarino, certainly these guys, at the different price points. The Fulget is really fresh, zippy, everything you expect from Albarino. The citrus notes, and the immediacy. It's interesting, wines such as Albarino, Muscadets, there's a reason they work so well with seafood. Also the wines from the Lisbon region of Portugal are perfect. The fact that they're so close to the ocean, each one of the wines that I've just mentioned, will have this kind of saline salty note. The seafood, you'd be surprised, has this kind of saccharin sweetness to it. So in pairing wines with seafood, and why Albarino, and Alvarinho, et cetera, are the classics to do it, is because they've got this citrus tone to them, on different levels.
Where they will cope with the sweetness of the seafood, and counteract it with this salty note that comes through, and call it a saline salty note, coming from the ocean. So, all the same grape variety. Slight variations. If I'm honest, this is one of my favorites, the Sobre Lias. Now Sobre Lias means the lees. So it's leaving the wine on its lees. What happens with this, you then have this extra dimension to the wine, with regards to flavor coming through. It intensifies everything. It really works well. I have a Muscadet where they leave the wine on the lees for a number of years. Now with this Albarino, they're not doing it for a number of years, but certainly for several months. And it will just increase the texture and flavor of the wine.
So, this is my shout out. If you're on a different budget, and you want to drink something of incredible quality, this is a single vineyard Finca las Tablas Albarino. Only 1200 bottles produced of the 2016 vintage. You're actually, although it's not the same grape variety, we got Albarino, but I'm going to talk about it as if it's got structure, profile, like a burgundy wine. Something quite, quite serious. So real small production, single vineyard.
Different appearance, there's rounded notes to the wine. This is a bit more linear. This is just that slightly more sophisticated, an absolutely fabulous glass of wine. Serve with Sea bass, sea bream, or if you're really treating yourself to a piece of turbot, this will work perfectly.
