Winemaker Notes
Straw yellow with greenish hues, clean and bright. High aromatic intensity and notes of very mature fruit, apple, citrus fruits, freshly baked bread, brioche and subtle toasty notes that become more evident after time in the bottle. The palate is structured and fresh. Acidity is very well integrated; the flavor is very oily and smooth. Complex and round with aromas of ripe fruit in the aftertaste.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
From the highest part of the vineyard on trellis, the perfumy 2022 Albariño Seleccion Finca Monte Alto offers more body and weight than the flagship estate, spending two years on the lees. Highly structured, focused, and mineral-driven, it has a touch of reduction and takes time to open in the glass, imparting demure flourishes of brioche and apple tart.
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James Suckling
Peaches and salted lemons on the nose. Round and supple on the medium-bodied palate, leading to a saline finish that’s typical of the region.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2022 Fillaboa Albarino Finca Monte Alto is bright, satisfying, and attractive. This wine brings aromas and flavors of green olives, fragrant herbs, and chalk. It looks like a perfect choice for grilled oysters. (Tasted: May 9, 2025, San Francisco, CA)
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.
Named after the rías, or estuarine inlets, that flow as far as 20 miles inland, Rías Baixas is an Atlantic coastal region with a cool and wet maritime climate. The entire region claims soil based on granite bedrock, but the inlets create five subregions of slightly different growing environments for its prized white grape, Albariño.
Val do Salnés on the west coast is said to be the birthplace of Albariño; it is the coolest and wettest of all of the regions. Having been named as the original subregion, today it has the most area under vine and largest number of wineries.
Ribeira do Ulla in the north and inland along the Ulla River is the newest to be included. It is actually the birthplace of the Padrón pepper!
Soutomaior is the smallest region and is tucked up in the hills at the end of the inlet called Ria de Vigo. Its soils are light and sandy over granite.
O Rosal and Condado do Tea are the farthest south in Rías Baixas and their vineyards actually cover the northern slopes of the Miño River, facing the Vinho Verde region in Portugal on its southern bank.
Albariño gives this region its fame and covers 90% of the area under vine. Caiño blanco, Treixadura and Loureira as well as occasionally Torrontés and Godello are permitted in small amounts in blends with Albariño. Red grapes are not very popular but Mencía, Espadeiro and Caiño Tinto are permitted and grown.