Albarino

Bodega Terras Gauda overlooks the gentle green countryside of Galicia in north west Spain where its vineyards are planted. Terras Gauda uses its own yeasts, selected from its vineyards. These yeasts are unique to the winery and have been patented. This is one of the reasons the TG wines are so consistent because they don?t need to rely on commercial yeasts.

Chill this wine to 12 degrees and break out your best seafood, recommends wine importer Sophie Cotter, who brings this wine into New Zealand. 

Albarino is on trend globally right now and originally comes from north west Spain and the north of Portugal, where makes its fresh, zesty, dry as a bone and super flavoursome taste go particularly well with seafood. This wine comes from Terras Gauda Winery on the Spanish side of the Minho River, which separates Portugal from Spain.This region and its Portuguese counterpart over the border is the original home for the Albarino grape, known in Portugal as Alvarinho.

This is Astrolabe winemaker Simon Waghorn's delicious take on Albarino and it's made from grapes grown in a quirky location, to say the very least. All grapes in this wine were hand picked from their coastal home at Kekerengu, south of Blenheim. It is the southernmost vineyard in the Marlborough region and only Astrolabe makes wine from the small vineyards planted there. This cool location provides slighter higher acidity and zestiness to the wines made from there.

Whole bunch pressing and fermentation on solids followed by lees aging provide this wine with depth and body, which balances the naturally high acidity that is innate to the Albarino grape - a native grape to north west Spain and Portugal and now at home in New Zealand. 

Flavours in this wine are all about green apples and lemon with a green olive note on its dry finish. 

This is the ultimate wine to drink with seafood on a hot day.

The story of Astrolabe

Diversity, history and family ownership are among the reasons to try the outstanding range of wines from Astrolabe, which was founded in 1996 in Marlborough by winemaker Simon Waghorn and his partner in life and wine, Jane. 

Simon has forged a reputation for being one of New Zealand's most respected producers of aromatic white wines after winning an almost embarrassingly long string of awards for his Sauvignon Blancs. He has also forged a name for adventurously diverse winemaking - he produces dry flinty whites from the most southern vineyard in Marlborough at Kekerengu on the coast about an hour's drive south of Blenheim. He is the only winemaker to produce wines from here. 

He is also one of the few in this country to make Albarino, Chenin Blanc and a consistently outstanding range of wines from the organically certified hillside sloping site that is the Wrekin Vineyard in Marlborough. 

The winery remains family owned and is now run by two generations, including Simon and Jane as well as their adult daughters. 

Nautilus Albarino is a limited edition wine made by Clive Jones at Nautilus winery where the cool temperature fermentation preserves the briny, salinity of Albarino's refreshing dry flavours. A brief period of ageing on yeast lees following fermentation adds a creamy balancing textural note to the taste and mouth feel of this lovely wine. 

The Albarino grape is originally from north west Spain and north west Portugal, where it's known as Alvarinho; same grape, different name. In Portugal it is used to make refreshing light bodied whites such as Vinho Verde and an increasing number of great dry single varietal white wines. 

Albariño is a classic Galician white grape variety from north western Spain, which thrives in New Zealand and tastes of fabulous aromatic lemon zest with green olive and freshly picked apple aromas. Forrest Estate winemaker Beth Forrest first encountered it in Spain and was smitten immediately. This led to Albarino being brought into New Zealand by Riversun Nurseries in Gisborne and, eventually, to growing in Marlborough where Beth and her famous winemaking father, John, Forrest, both love it and produce this fabulous dry white wine.

This wine shows all the classical Albariño elements with a New Zealand touch of vibrant acidity, white peach, pear, apricots and quince, with an orange zest undertone.

An absolute show stopper dry white wine made from the great Albarino grape - this wine has succulence, body and intense lemon, hazelnut and oatmeal flavours, all of which add to its full bodied appeal.
Thick skinned grapes in loose bunches with tiny berries are the story of the great white Albarino grape. These factors make it ideally suited to New Zealand?s maritime climate, which is similar to that of its homelands in north west Portugal and Spain. This grape?s intense acidity and later ripening combine to make a full bodied, dry, intensely deliciously succulent, refreshing white.
Winemaker Gordon Russell softens the high acidity by ageing the wine for one year in bottle in the cellar, pre release. He's also learning about optimum picking times, since it's still pretty early days for Albarino in New Zealand.

Hawke's Bay winemaker Grant Edmonds sources the Albarino grapes in this stunning wine from the Bridge Pa area of Hawke's Bay and wow, what a wine. 

Fresh, crisp, intensely flavoursome and every sip lingers, thanks to the Albarino grape's naturally high acidity which provides great flavour memory here. This is a stellar new addition to Edmonds' Redmetal wine brand.

Delicious and succulent in every sip. 

Albarino is a grape from the Galicia region in Spain. It is known for making fairly pale, high acid wines with distinctive aromatic stone-fruit qualities. This is a new varietal for North Canterbury, which has shown promising results for this grape. The nose on this wine is rich with classic stone-fruit, spice and citrus notes. The palate is concentrated and juicy, with great acid brightness.

An outstanding New Zealand Albarino with complex flavours of salty green olives, freshly picked Granny Smith apples and bright acidity, which adds a zesty note to the flavours of subtly savoury wine. It's rich and full bodied with mouthwatering crisp salivating acidity giving great balance, length and structure.

Exceptionally tasty Albarino made in a bone dry style with fleshy unctuous texture from skin contact. Outstanding flavours and depth. Great white in taste, value and the all important X factor wow.

A fruit salad of a wine! Passionfruit with white peach, apricot & a light smokiness.  A saline & refreshing acid profile with supple texture.

When I found out there was some Albari?o available from the Two Terraces vineyard I was so excited to work with such a refreshing and versatile variety! Already familiar with the quality of the fruit grown by Ian and Linda Quinn, as well as the care and attention to soil health, I did not hesitate to jump at the opportunity.

The whole bunches were hand harvested, de-stemmed and macerated on the skins for two weeks time. A very light daily hand plunge and the addition of my active vineyard starter yeast which fermented underneath the vines. Biodynamic preparations 500, CPP were applied to the soil through out the year, as well as silica quartz (501) to the canopy.

After fermentation was complete the free run juice Albari?o was pressed into a large spherical and small Tinajas for ageing on its lees.

The Abarino Brothers consist of winemaker Ollie Powrie, Shaye Bird and Ant Saunders who all share a passion for Albarino and a wealth of experience in the NZ wine industry. This is their Gisborne release with oodles of varietal typicity in the form of zingy zesty flavours, bright acidity and a splash of salinity. The perfect match for seafood.

Albarino is a lively Spanish white wine from Galicia in north west Spain; the region also known as green Spain because it has a higher than typical rainfall for that country. This may be why Albarino has adapted so well to New Zealand?s maritime climate and this bright and tasty wine comes from a small, sheltered vineyard in the Upper Moutere hills of Nelson, where cool nights preserve the acidity that drives every succulent sip.

"Albarino is lively, like the Spanish people; lemony, punchy, aromatic and layered..." says winemaker Trudy Shield. 

And what's not to love about all that. 

This is a pronounced skin contact expression of the Amphora Albarino with dried apricots, quince & orange rind notes. Appealing phenolic texture with treacle & marmalade, finishing with freshness.

As I was pressing the Albarino, (which had been macerating on skins for two weeks) the 'skins' portion began to turn a bright orange colour. I separated this amber portion into puncheon & barrel.

Later down the ageing track the pressings component from the Amphora Albarino announced itself as its own wine. So I paid attention and gave it its own voice.

The whole bunches were hand harvested, de-stemmed and macerated on the skins for two weeks time. A very light daily hand plunge and the addition of my active vineyard starter yeast which fermented underneath the vines. Biodynamic preparations 500, CPP were applied to the soil through out the year, as well as silica quartz (501) to the canopy.

A robust and fruity Albarino that is fuller bodied and less acid-driven than some. Peachy flavours, round and rich with mouthcoating glycerols.