2005 Pazo de Señorans 

Rating: ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠

One of the unexpected fringe benefits of being — simultaneously — something a pioneer, a raving cheapskate, and a man of exacting and refined tastes is finding new-to-us wines. Discovering, much like Columbus discovered Ohio, something to share with those similarly predisposed. Thus far, my ruminations and suggestions have mostly embraced red wine because, well, that’s just the way I roll. But there is much to recommend the white wines once you manage to effect an a Plisskinesque escape from Done To Death. The white wine which has caught my fancy of late is the Albariño from the Rías Baixas, in the Galician part of Spain. Galicia is the northwesternmost region of Spain, and it’s best known for it’s fjord-like coastline and estuaries called in the local dialect “Rías Baixas” probably because a word like fjord gives the Iberic tongue an ambarrassing pain, to say nothing of being Norwegian. But I digress.
 
As a wine hub, this place has made its reputation mostly (OK, solely) on the white wines which are produced from the otherwise unknown Albariño grape, which have proven to be something of a surprise hit. I say something of a surprise, because white wines have also suffered from the dreaded Internationalization Plague, and have often become butterier, fatter, oakier, an so forth. As our taste for seafood grows and our palates learn to discern better, it’s only natural to gravitate towards wines that are crisper and lighter and “racier.” In keeping with this, the archetypal Rías Baixas wines tend to be monumentally aromatic: Herby, citrusy and apricot/peachy all tend to be adjectives that fly around when these wines are the focus of a tasting. Very happily for people who enjoy eating seafood that is not lobster aswim in butter, the Albariño wines (at least from the Rías Baixas) only sees oak when being transported through a forest. This allows its natural racy acidity to help it marry spectacularly with seafood, especially those ultrafresh examples where its briny-sweet character is on display.
 
Of these wines (and you have a mission ahead of you to find a bad one) I’m partial to those from Pazo de Señorans. This winery belongs to a crusader of sorts. In the late 1980s, its owner, Marisol Bueno helped spearhead the appellation, which now benefits from a Denominación de Origen. As a result of her efforts, the appellation was formally born in 1988, with the happy result of quality benchmarks, which in turn begat worldwide recognition. As befits someone interested in keeping things as close to the traditional ideal, her estate is one property among the few still operating in a family-owned model. By design, it has resisted expansion in order to keep up a near-fanatical level of quality. So you can imagine how well-pruned teh vines are, keeping the yields nice and low.
 
Now, the wines of Rías Baixas are very much influenced by the proximity of the Atlantic, which gives the place a verdant character with a hint of salty tang in the breezes. (I’ve been there, and unlikely as it sounds, it does have a salty tang.) Yes, it has lots of rainfall and humidity. This keeps the temperatures in the moderate range and affords the region a very fertile profile. From looking at it, you’d swear the countryside was the love child of Ireland and Norway, with its fjord-lets and a surplus of green, gently rolling hills. It’s on these hills the vines are planted, under which lies rich and minerally soil. Pazo de Señorans is at the northernmost part of the Rías Baixas.

The 2005 Pazo de Señorans definitely lives up to expectations. The color is a pale, bright gold, and it has a minerally bouquet with a riot (in a good way) of apricot/peachy notes. On the palate, you are immediately aware of its dry and crisp nature, that yields to an intense outburst of peach subtext, with additional honeyed elements and a slight richness from sitting on its lees. The finish? You should live so long. Naturally, it’s not oaked and thus is ideal for the lighter, brinier seafoods. Think oysters in mignonette or not overly brash crudos or even simply grilled flounder/sole or seabass, maybe with a delicate herb crust and a spritz of citrus. This wine is spectacularly delicious.
 
5 spades. Yes, 5.