Mmm, sounds tasty. I’ll have to try and get some.

Dave, Sounds like a nice wine. I’ve only tried a few and have felt they’re ok, but have always wondered about the value-for-money. Do you feel its worth the $ ?

Good question. It really depends on how you look at value, but comparing with a similar imported wine such as a German Riesling or Soave from Italy, I think it stacks up very well.

Comparing to any white wine available in Australia, there is a great difference in cost, however there is a similar quality level at the top end. In this case its more of judgement call.

Personally, I think its worth it. But I’m a spanish wine nut…

Yeah, guess you’re right when you compare it to an imported white. And ok, I suppose there’s something to be said for variety. Can’t wait for some Aussie winemakers to tackle it like they have temp’o and we can pick it up for $20 ish….

I think what the aussie market needs is a killer Albarino for around $20. Then people will have a punt and try it. I have had this and it is really good. Problem is it ia hard to convince people to try it at $35 a bottle which is a shame.

Yep, albarino is renowned as the most expensive white in Spain, there are a lot of factors of course, but the US and UK markets buy the bulk of this gear.

Something like Martin Codax sells for US$12 in the states, it would be $22-25 here….

Where things seem to be going well is the restaurant trade, just about every place I’ve been in the last year has an albarino on the list at $40 and people buying multiple bottles too.

I

There will be quite a few Australian albarino’s coming through in the next three years - and probably at or below the $20 price point. As well as Tamar Ridge/Richard Smart doing it in Tasmania, Steve Weber from DeBortoli (Yarra) and Louisa Rose (Yalumba) are working on it. That’s a pretty good cross-section of cluey viticulture and winemaking, I reckon. Interestingly, for a grape that dances between riesling and viognier, I suspect Lousia’s experience with both of those varietals in the past will be telling.

Some others to keep an eye on are Matt Gant/John Retsas from First Drop Wines and Damien Tscharke from the Barossa, doing albarino from a warmer area (as are the Buttery’s in McLaren Vale [Gemtree]).

I’m not so convinced about plantings that are going in to warm and humid coastal sites here (such as the NSW south coast), which seem to be less driven by homoclime comparisons than a belief that if it can tolerate humidity then it might grow here. The Rias Baixas is such a strange set of microclimates that I’m unsure trying to replicate those characteristics with Australian sites is that good an idea. But someone will surely make cracking albarino near an Australian beach somewhere and prove me wrong.

I still suspect that cooler sites will give the best results (for my tastes) - such as spots in the Yarra, the King Valley, maybe the Adelaide Hills or Eden Valley, and definitely here in Canberra. Our albarino went in only a few hours ago today, so a crop is a way off yet! I’m trialling some different rootstocks to see how they’ll perform (same top wood).

Dave,
I remembered your note on this and found a bottle of this on the w/e Scoffed it with the household’s traditional creamy chicken korma (I defy someone to make a tapas dish of that !! Actually, shouldn’t laugh - there was a short-lived Asian-Spanish fusion type tapas place here in Adelaide a few years ago….interesting…. ). The wine’s good, much better than my previous experiences with albarino - seemed to have more of a minerally Old World riesling-like structured palate than I expected. Nose seemed more expressive too. I’d have to say this one was very close to being worth the price.

Good to see you enjoyed it. Out of interest, what did you pay at reatil?

Dave,
Think it was $33 after 10% off for the half-dozen.