Drinks of the Month

Wine of the week: Candelilla Albarino 2018

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on September 2 2019 at 08:56

If you’re an albarino fan you’ll have watched with dismay as the price has crept up over the last few years so much so that an albarino under £10 has become something of a rarity.

So it’s good to see this well-priced example, the Candelilla Albarino at £9 a bottle or £54 a case from Marks & Spencer.

For those of you not familiar with the wine it comes from a region called Rias Baixas right on the coast in the north west of Spain and is made from a grape called albarino. It’s a classic crisp, dry seafood white - less fruity than a sauvignon blanc but with more persistence and elegance than a picpoul and a slightly salty tang about it which would make it terrific with oysters and other raw shellfish. Think of it as a Spanish Chablis.

I bought a bottle for friends on Saturday night which we cracked open with a crab risotto and they liked it so much they were going to order a case. If you’re lucky you’ll find it on a deal over the coming weeks though now M & S has lowered its prices across the board they are less common than they once were.

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