Winemaker Notes
A finely tuned Albariño. Brilliantly clean, stony tropical pineapple presents clearly on the nose and palate. Yellow citrus flavors are like a simple, well-constructed melody, balanced and constrained.
Serve with garlic shrimp, chicken breast sauté or light white fish.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The eponymous unoaked Albariño 2020 Zarate comes from 10 plots in Padrende (Meaño) on sandy granite soils that average 35 years of age. The must from a soft pressing fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel, where it was kept with lees for 12 months. It has 12.9% alcohol and very good freshness (pH 3.16) and acidity (6.4 grams). It has the fragrant personality of the 2020 whites and the vibrant and focused palate, round, complete and balanced. Some 40% of the wine underwent malolactic. This wine is pretty consistent from vintage to vintage. It repays time in bottle. Best After 2022
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.