10 wines that prove we should all drink more Galician wine

Spain's north-west winemaking region is where to find the good stuff

Galicia. Bottom half of picture = Spain. Top half = Portugal.

During my wine store days, I would sell pallet loads of Albariño every year. This grape variety found its fame in Galicia, Spain’s most north-western winemaking region, just above Portugal.

During the 2000s and 2010s, Albariño went what we would now call viral. Its popularity exploded thanks to its ability to make what everyone wanted back then — light, fresh, easy-to-drink white wines.

This had a knock-on effect in the region itself, not least that while in the past, the region championed both white and red grapes, Albariño now accounts for 96% of plantings. And as often happens when a grape gets popular, whilst the quantity went up, the quality went down. Albariño got boring. A supermarket staple designed to be little more than something to attract people away from Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio.

Poor Albariño. It never deserved such treatment (no grape does) because when it’s good, it’s really good. In its best form, Albariño is a fresh, salty, mineral white wine — it takes its lead from the Atlantic climate in which it thrives, especially right next to the ocean in Rias Baixas. It can be complex and age-worthy. It can be world-class.

Then there is the rest of Galicia, less well known on the world wine stage but a haven for interesting wines. Go further inland from Rias Baixas and you’ll find regions like Ribeiro. Ribeira Sacra. Valdeorras. Bierzo. You’ll find grape varieties you may never have heard of like the red Caiño, Brancellao and Ferrol or the white Treixadura and slightly more well-known Godello.

You’ll find rich whites that can rival Burgundy in their best form. Even better, the red wines from regions like Ribeiro, Ribeira Sacra and Bierzo make stalky, spicy, elegant wines not completely unlike Northern Rhône Syrahs.

But we probably shouldn’t compare regions with regions because Galicia has an identity all of its own.

Living in Northern Portugal means I have great access to Galician wines and drink them often. That and, with my trip to Galicia’s A Coruña last week, I want to share some practical knowledge with you:

My 10 all-time favourite wineries in Rias Baixas, Ribeiro and Ribeira Sacra and what to buy from each.

Some parameters. First, all these wineries are on the list because I drink them on the regular. I don’t take recommendations lightly. I have to know a winery well —and drink their wines multiple times — before I’ll tell you to buy them.

Second, pretty much all of these wines are available in the US, UK and Europe (with a couple of exceptions) because I’ve got subscribers everywhere and want as many of you to have access to the wines I recommend. I’ve included where-to-buy links or you can use winesearcher.com to find stockists in your country.

Third, whilst the first recommendation is for everyone, the other nine are for my lovely paid subscribers. Access to these reccos — as well as everything at The Sauce from essays to recipes to travel guides — is $5 a month or $50 a year.

I don’t often recommend specific wines at The Sauce so I’d love to know what you think about this as a semi-regular feature. Let me know either in the comments or in the chat I’ll set up as soon as this mailout hits your inbox.

1) Attis, Rias Baixas

I had the pleasure of visiting Attis a few years back on a Rias Baixas-sponsored buying trip. They were by far my favourite winery of the trip and have remained one of my all-time favourites in Rias Baixas. There is something about their Albariños that set them apart, not least their salinity and brightness.

Whilst Attis are very proud of their “Mar” wine — bottles aged under the sea, barnacles stuck to the bottle and all — I personally think that, bang for buck, their flagship “Lias Finas” Albarino is the one to buy.

Wine to buy: Attis Albariño “Lias Finas” ($30 / approx £20 / €17.90)