Albarino Meets 10 Downing Street
With all the rain we’ve had in New York this spring, we were beginning to feel like we live in London—or even Galicia, which gets more rain than any other part of Spain. Deciding to combine the two, we headed over to Ten Downing Street with our own bottle of 2008 Pazo Senorans Albariño to sample some of chef Jason Neroni’s dishes. Although Ten Downing’s menu covers air, land, and sea, we stuck with the water theme and washed down a few fish dishes with our wine.
This pale yellow Albarino offers a white grapefruit bouquet with hints of flowers, and its crisp steely minerality is refreshing to the palate. With a long, clean finish, it was the perfect match with our seafood dishes. The crispy sardines in salsa verde and pickled ramps were an excellent start to our meal. Almond-crusted softshell crabs with white romesco were a standout. The wine paired amazingly well with Arctic char in saffron orange glaze, and stood up beautifully to spicy patatas brava and even spicier aioli. The Skate Grenbloise with lemon, parsley and brown butter was perfectly executed.
We spend a good deal of time in Spain, and usually enjoy our Albarino on the sunny beaches of the Costa del Sol. But the next time we are stuck in the rain, whether in New York, London, or Galicia, we won’t despair: We always remember that Albarino is pure sunshine in a wineglass.
Mike DeSimone and Jeff Jenssen are food, wine and travel writers based in New York City and Spain.
