Spanish white wines will never hold the same place in my heart as Spanish reds, but – largely thanks to the influence of Terras Gauda – they are starting to bring the balance closer to resembling my overall favour-ratio between the dark stuff and the light stuff. (Which is about 60/40 to the reds.)
This 100%-Albariño white from Rías Baixas, Galicia – right in the top-left corner of Spain – is a similar affair to the first of the whites they sent, which I enjoyed a week or two ago.
Completely different grape, and completely different bottle; same bit of Galicia though.
I detected a similar stoney mineral hint coming off the surface of this pale-green-gold – almost money-coloured – white wine. It was probably a touch less citric than the Caíño Branco, but there were definite hints of citrus detected on the tongue, along with a veritable fruit-salad of flavours along the lines of apricot, pear and pineapple. In fact, the wine transformed from a Chablis-style sauve soil-based affair in the nose to a much more tropical Southern Hemisphere sort of event in the mouth.
The tasting notes, interestingly, indicate that everything I picked up with my mouth, I ought to have detected already with my nose. (And Wikipedia agrees – adding that the grape “should not be confused with the Alvarinho Liláz”. Trust me, there was no danger of me falling for that one!)
It’s all very confusing, but I won’t let it spoil my enjoyment of the wine, which – again: strike two for Terras Gauda – shows more elements worthy of comment than most Spanish whites I’ve tried before.
The delightful label has an interesting image of what looks like a masked and cloaked vigilante stalking away from a Gothic building of some sort of religious significance. It suggests intrigue and narrative and allegory – although it’s probably just a monk.
The Terras Gauda website actually has a page dedicated to this wine, so you can read all about it in more coherency than I can muster – although the tasting notes, interestingly, differ slightly from those on the press release, which suggests there is room for interpretation. This I like.
No buy-link though. Not that I can see. Email them: they have an email address on the bottom of their page. FYI, I think “comme estas?” means something in Spanish, although whether it’ll help you buy wine, I have no idea.
