An Albarino Exploration
My wife and I were recently asked to explore some Albariño pairings as part of Albariño week here in NYC. Since we were going to eat & drink in celebration of said week anyway, who are we to turn down a free meal?
We ate at a Spanish tapas joint called Boqueria SoHo. The wine and food were good, but it was the pairing of the two that made the experience for us.
First, I must admit we didn’t know a ton about Albariño beyond it’s a white from Spain (and it turns out, Portugal). We ended up ordering a bottle of Burgans Albariño (2009). The first thing anyone will notice when they order this wine is the color. It’s light, but somehow bright yellow in color. This perfectly matched the nose, which was strong apple and citrus, but sharp (vs. sweet). It packed a punch, but actually isn’t very high in alcohol content. This is apparently this wine’s theme: it offers more than you expect at many a turn. It’s consistently more potent in flavor, complexity and aroma than it lets on initially. I love that.
It paired well with many of our dishes. The acidity cut nicely into the heat from the blistered shisito peppers we started with, while the citrus was a nice a balance to the sea salt sprinkled upon them.
The surprising pairing of the evening was with the cheeses. Boqueria SoHo has a wonderful cheese list, so of course we indulged. We had a Manchego and a Monte Enebro (a unique semi-soft pasteurized goat’s milk cheese aged in ash for 2 months). I expected an intense goat cheese to do well, as I know it does well with Sauvignon Blanc. Although Albariño is a different flavor profile of course, its crispness and refreshing characteristics paired nicely with the Monte Enebro, just as a Sauvignon Blanc would. It brought out the bready aspects of the wine that I’d read other people talk about, but wasn’t detecting on my palette until the cheese opened it up for me.
The Manchego was another story. I wondered if this was going to be a pairing mistake (although I don’t buy into many of the pairing rules, I tend to associate Manchego as best served with a red wine, like a Rioja). It wasn’t a mistake at all. In fact, I would rate it positively, albeit atypical. The Albariño surprised with its diversity, showing more minerality when the Manchego’s nuttiness came in waves over my palette. It’s worth trying for any wine and cheese lover looking to experiment with pairings.
The only Albariño pairing we had that I wouldn’t recommend was the delicious sounding Quail-egg & Uni Flatbread (a special that evening). Frankly, the dish itself was a bit all over the place, so the wine couldn’t keep up. These two together happened to bring out the worst, rather than the best, in one another.
Other than that exception, the meal was a really good experience that showed me quite a bit I didn’t expect from a wine I was fairly ignorant about.
I guess that’s why vintners and distributers host events like Albariño week!
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