sparkling-wine
Inaugural 2021 Sparkling Albariño by Wood Family Vineyards Called Hot Lips!
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Albariño or Alvarinho is a variety of white wine grape grown in Galicia, specifically in the Rías Baixas region (northwest Spain) and in Northwest Portugal (Monção and Melgaço).
Map courtesy of Wine Scholar Guild
In Portugal it is known as Alvarinho, and sometimes as Cainho Branco. Around 93% of the world’s Albariño vines are planted in Spain and Portugal. In California only 610 acres are planted and bearing Albariño grapes. Key areas are San Louis Obispo with 12 acres, Monterey with 9, El Dorado with 8 and San Joaquin with 7. The balance of the vineyards, 33% are scattered about California.
Typical flavors of Albariño are lemon zest, grapefruit, honeydew, nectarines and a tinge of salinity and often finish with a slight bitter note or minerality note. I have noticed that American Albariño is crisp and with strong aromatic notes of stone fruits and honeysuckle.
What is a Sparkling Albariño?
This wine is made using the Mèthode Champenoise, the traditional method used for making sparkling wines. After the initial fermentation, the wine is bottled, and new yeast is added to start the secondary fermentation. This creates CO2 and gives the wine its signature bubbles.
Photo from Wood Family Vineyards
Each bottle then spends several months to up to six years aging upside down and rotated a quarter of a turn on a precise schedule. The angle is also steepened to allow the yeast/lees to collect at the neck of the bottle called riddling. Afterward, the wine is disgorged. It may be topped, then corked and labeled.
To help give a perspective on sugar levels for Champagne or Sparkling wines, here are the basic categories, going from sweet to dry based on dosage of sugar added:
• Doux: 50 or more grams of sugar added per liter. Outrageously sweet.
• Demi-Sec: 32 to 50 grams of sugar. Still sweet but showing some traction in the market.
• Sec: “Sec” in French means dry. But dry here indicates a medium sweet sparking of 17 to 32 grams of sugar per liter.
• Extra Sec: Meaning “Extra Dry” which is less sweet than Sec wine with 12 to 17 grams of sugar per liter.
• Brut: Up to 12 grams of sugar added. This leads to a balance of flavor and acidity. A bit more rounded than Extra Brut. This is one of the more popular levels of Champagne for consumers.
• Extra Brut: With fewer than 6 grams of sugar, this will produce higher acid and accentuate the carbonation.
• Brut Nature: With no sugar added (less than 3 grams), not common but a way for the winemaker to allow the quintessential nature of the Sparkling wine. This will provide strong minerality and high acidity.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Do you know what the metal cage on sparkling wine is called and why it is used? A muselet (French: [myz. le]) is a wire cage that fits over the cork of a bottle of champagne, sparkling wine or beer to prevent the cork from emerging under the pressure of the carbonated contents. The pressure inside a bottle of bubbly is typically somewhere between 70 and 90 pounds per square inch or twice the pressure of a typical car tire! The muselet is an added method of security to keep the cork in place. Another fun fact is that in a flute of sparkling wine there are approximately one million bubbles.
The Wine – “Wine is bottled poetry” – Robert Louis Stevenson
Photo ©Michael Kelly
This sparkling wine spent about eighteen months on the lees compared to Champagne which spends a minimum of one year and often many more. This produces a light and refreshing sparkling wine. Admittedly I have a disposition to Albariño since I enjoy seafood and shellfish. This inaugural wine on the eyes possessed a clear and radiant straw coloring. On the nose, floral notes of grapefruit and Meyer lemon. On the palate, green apple and slight tastes of kumquat and grapefruit. A tinge of brioche completed the tasting along with stone fruit. Typical on the finish was a slight salinity, crispness and minerality. Beautifully constructed Albariño with the bonus of bubbles!
This inaugural release goes for $48/bottle and is 12% alcohol. The grapes come from the Kalthoff Common in Livermore.
The Food and Wine Pairing – “Food without wine is a corpse; wine without food is a ghost. United and well matched, they are as body and soul: living partners” – Andre Simon
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Paired this evening with a shrimp pasta dish called One-Pot Lemon Garlic Shrimp Pasta. The ingredients call for fettuccine pasta, olive oil, unsalted butter, minced garlic, crushed red peppers, large shrimp (U12-14), salt & pepper to taste, oregano, baby spinach, Parmesan cheese, parsley, lemon juice and lemon zest. Accompanied by a fresh garden salad which included baby tomatoes, green onions, pepitas and bacon.
The refreshing sparkling Albariño was perfectly matched with the large shrimp and pasta dish.
This will make the annual list of Best Wines Tasted in 2024.
Other items to pair with Albariño are paella, sushi, fish tacos, shellfish and seafoods.
Sláinte,
Michael