I am quite down on Albariño lately.  It’s a grape I fell in love with over 8 years ago before I came to Spain.  One of my first wine trips when I came to live here was to Rias Baixas in Galicia, the homeland of Albariño.

Christmas is over, but here in Spain, the holidays are just kicking off!  We still have two more weeks of festivities here!

Many people here in Spain dismiss whites for the holidays, relegating them to the hot days of summer, but actually whites can be the perfect pick for holiday meals.  The best whites for matching with a wide variety of holiday foods are not  oaky Chardonnays or even an intense, green Sauvignon Blancs.  For me the best whites are un-oaked (or little oaked) aromatic varieties such as Riesling or Albariño. 

In my classes, I always stress the huge gap that exists between Spanish red wines and white wines. For several years, I’ve been able to use a fun example to illustrate that point.  The most expensive red wine in Spain is Pingus from Ribera del Duero, which has a theoretical price of 600 euros, but in reality is seems to be much higher. Until recently. the most expensive still white wine in Spain was Chivite Coleccion 125 Barrel-fermented Chardonnay from Navarra at only about 50 euros!   I would venture to say no other country had such a disparity between the colors!