Albariño () or Alvarinho () is a variety of white
wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...
grape
A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters.
The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...
grown in
Galicia (northwest Spain) and in Northwest Portugal (Monção and Melgaço,
Alto Minho) where it is also used to make
varietal
A varietal wine is a wine made primarily from a single named grape variety, and which typically displays the name of that variety on the wine label.The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2000.winepros.com.au. ...
white wines. Albariño is the name for the grape in
Galician. In Portugal it is known as Alvarinho, and sometimes as
Cainho Branco.
It was once thought that Albariño/Alvarinho was brought to
Iberia
The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...
by monks from the monastery of
Cluny
Cluny () is a commune in the eastern French department of Saône-et-Loire, in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is northwest of Mâcon.
The town grew up around the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in ...
in the twelfth century, but recent studies point to Albariño/Alvarinho being native to Galicia/Portugal. Both the Galician "Albariño" and the Portuguese "Alvarinho", derive from ''albo''<''albus'', meaning "white, whitish". It has also been theorized that the grape is a close relative of the French grape
Petit Manseng.
[Oz Clarke ''Encyclopedia of Grapes'' pg 167 Harcourt Books 2001 ]
It should not be confused with Alvarinho Lilás (
Madeira
Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...
), Albarín Blanco (Asturias in Northern Spain),
Albillo Real, Azal,
Caiño Blanco (O Rosal in Galicia and Portugal),
Galego Dourado,
Savagnin Blanc (Galicia, France, Australia), or
Verdeca (Puglia in Italy).
Major regions
Spain produces Albariño to a significant degree in the
Rías Baixas
The Rías Baixas ( Galician for "Lower Rias") are a series of four estuarine inlets located on the southwestern coast of Galicia, Spain. They are the Ría de Muros e Noia, the Ría de Arousa, the Ría de Pontevedra, and the Ría de Vigo.Me ...
DO, as well as in
Barbanza e Iria.
[Oz Clarke ''Encyclopedia of Grapes'' pg 36 Harcourt Books 2001 ] In Portugal Alvarinho is common in the
Vinho Verde
Vinho Verde (; , nonliterally 'young wine') refers to Portuguese wine that originated in the historic Minho Province in the far north of the country. The modern-day 'Vinho Verde' region, originally designated in 1908, includes the old Minho Pro ...
region, but it is only authorised to be grown in
Monção and
Melgaço. In other locations such as
Ribeiro, Lima, or
Braga
Braga (; ) is a cities of Portugal, city and a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality, capital of the northwestern Portugal, Portuguese Braga (district), district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality ...
it is often mixed with other grapes such as
Loureiro,
Godelho,
Cainho or
Borraçal,
Arinto
Arinto or Arinto de Bucelas is a white Portuguese wine grape planted primarily in the Bucelas, Tejo and Vinho Verde regions. It can produce high acid wines with lemon notes.
Synonyms
Arinto is also known by the synonyms Arintho, Arintho du Dao ...
or
Treixadura to produce blended wines. Such blends were common throughout Galicia too until about 1985; when the Rías Baixas DO was established in 1986, Albariño began to emerge as a variety, both locally and internationally.
[ Split Personality](_blank)
, a December 2002 ''Wine Spectator
''Wine Spectator'' is an American lifestyle magazine that focuses on wine, wine culture and wine ratings. It is the flagship publication of M. Shanken Communications, which also publishes ''Cigar Aficionado'', ''Whisky Advocate'', ''Market Watch' ...
'' article (registration required to read archived article) Its emergence as a variety led the wines to be "crafted for the palates of Europe, America and beyond and for wine drinkers who wanted clean flavours and rich,
ripe fruit" and led to wines completely different from those produced across the river in Portugal.
Albariño is now produced in several California regions including the Santa Ynez Valley,
Clarksburg, Napa, Edna Valley and
Los Carneros AVAs. Albariño is also produced in Oregon, first by
Abacela Winery in the
Umpqua Valley AVA, and in Washington state.
Albariño is also grown in Uruguay and is produced as a varietal by Bodegas Garzon.
Albariño has also attracted the attention of Australian winemakers, several of whom produce varietal wines. However, it was discovered that grape growers and wine makers in Australia had been supplying and selling wrongly labelled Albariño for over a decade. A French expert visiting Australia raised questions in 2008, and DNA testing confirmed that the grapes thought to be Albariño were in fact French Savagnin and almost all wine in Australia labelled as Albariño is Savagnin.
Wine characteristics
The grape is noted for its distinctive botanical aroma with a citrus undertone, very similar to that of
Viognier
Viognier () is a white wine grape variety. It is the only permitted grape for the French wine Condrieu AOC, Condrieu in the Rhone Valley (wine), Rhône Valley.J. Robinson ''The Oxford Companion to Wine'', Third Edition, p. 754, Oxford Univers ...
,
Gewurztraminer, and
Petit Manseng, suggesting
apricot
An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus ''Prunus''.
Usually an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are also ...
and
peach
The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and Agriculture, cultivated in China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and the glossy-skinned, non-fuzzy varieties called necta ...
. The wine produced is unusually light, and generally high in acidity with alcohol levels of 11.5–12.5%.
Its thick skins and large number of pips can cause residual bitterness.
Viticulture
For hundreds of years, Alvarinho/Albariño vines could be found growing around the trunks of
poplar trees and in bushes along the outside margins of fields—a practice which some growers still use in Portugal's
Vinho Verde
Vinho Verde (; , nonliterally 'young wine') refers to Portuguese wine that originated in the historic Minho Province in the far north of the country. The modern-day 'Vinho Verde' region, originally designated in 1908, includes the old Minho Pro ...
region. In the middle of the century, however, growers made big investments and became professional grape growers. In Vinho Verde, the vines are typically trained on high pergolas, which encourages over-cropping, often leading to grapes that are unable to exceed more than 8.5% potential alcohol.
When grown in a vineyard, the vines need to be wire trained with large canopies to accommodate the 30 to 40 buds per shoot that is typical. The grape responds well to the heat and humidity though the high yields and bunching of clusters usually keep the grapes within the margins of ripeness.
Synonyms
Alvarinho/Albariño is also known under the synonyms Albelleiro, Alvarin Blanco, Azal Blanco, Galego, Galeguinho, and Padernã.
See also
*
List of Portuguese grape varieties
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Albarino
Galicia (Spain)
White wine grape varieties
Grape varieties of Spain
Spanish wine