Winemaker Notes
Albariño is a delicate Spanish white grape that grows well in our estate vineyards. It produces an assertive, dry wine characterized by beautiful floral aromas and fruity flavors that finishes with refreshing acidity
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Oregon's Albariño pioneers deliver once again. The wine's lemon zest, pineapple and spearmint aromas are refreshing, while lemon butter, rosemary and peach flavors are satisfying. The Albariño's brilliant acidity is the show-stopper here. Pair it with Padrón peppers and a fish taco
Editors' Choice -
James Suckling
Bright fruit here with pineapples, pears, lemons and nectarines on the nose. It’s medium-bodied with crisp acidity and juicy stone and tropical fruit.
Bright and aromatic with distinctive floral and fruity characteristics, Albariño has enjoyed a surge in popularity and an increase in plantings over the last couple of decades. Thick skins allow it to withstand the humid conditions of its homeland, Rías Baixas, Spain, free of malady, and produce a weighty but fresh white. Somm Secret—Albariño claims dual citizenship in Spain and Portugal. Under the name Alvarinho, it thrives in Portugal’s northwestern Vinho Verde region, which predictably, borders part of Spain’s Rías Baixas.
Three substantial mountain ranges intersect to create a region of great diversity, not only in soil and topography but also climate and as a result, grape varieties.
Where the Klamath Mountains, Coast Range and Cascades converge, is the rather small AVA, the Umpqua Valley, which boasts over 150 soils in a total growing area of merely 1,500 acres. The soils range from sedimentary, metamorphic or volcanic where valley floors are deep alluvium and heavy clay and hillsides are typically silt or clay.
In the Umpqua Valley AVA, vineyards in the north are cooler and wetter; cool climate grapes such as Pinot noir, Pinot gris and Riesling do well. In the warmer and dryer south mainly Syrah and Tempranillo thrive. But growers here are not afraid to investigate new grape varieties; the region is home to over forty types.
There are two sub-AVAs within the boundaries of the Umpqua Valley: Red Hill-Douglas Country, established in 2004 and Elkton, established in 2013.