Albarino is the maladjusted, troubled teenager of Spanish wines. Growing mostly in Portugal and Galicia (in the northwest) it’s a grape that loves the cold and being blasted by wind and rain (so moody!). Albarino was developed in isolation, away from all the other wines and their stupid judgments, and it’s mostly harvested by hand (making it very difficult, like a troubled teen, and also more expensive, also like a troubled teen) and it’s often mixed up in the cocaine trade (very troubled) since Galicia, where it’s grown, was one of the leading cocaine smuggling hubs for all of Europe until recently. Fun fact: Condes de Albarei winery is located on property that was seized from a coke dealer and they dedicate 5% of their land to a drug rehab program.

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Less coke-fueled, but just as delicious, is the Abacela Albarino we started serving recently, a rare North American Albarino, grown in Oregon at the Abacela winery.

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Far, far back in the misty past, Albarino was probably a clone of Riesling grapes and like Rieslings (or Viogniers) it is a very floral wine. Highly acidic, but deeply complex, it’s a complicated wine that no one understands but its woman (or its parents). Pour a glass of the Abacela Albarino and flowers climb up over the rim and a citrus-scented breeze wafts from the glass. But taste it, and you’ll get a mouthful of mellow gold. It’s a wine tasting of pears and pineapples, an elegant, crisp, highly-acidic wine that should be drunk within three years, more like a sake than a wine, losing its taste if it gets too old.

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The Abacela vineyards are a labor of love for Earl and Hilda Jones whose original mission was to grow Spanish varietals in the US because so many of them got so little respect here. The main reason there was no respect was because the wines weren’t great, mostly because no one in North America was growing really great Spanish grapes. The Jones did their research and discovered that Oregon was the place with the right terroir. Located in the Umpqua Valley in Southern Oregon, they started Abacela in 1995 and they do their best to keep the original flavor of their grapes as unadulterated as possible. They handle their grapes as rarely as they can, filter their wines only when absolutely necessary, use the gravity flow method for crushing and do their best not to let their barrels interfere with the grapes’ taste.

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Not the prettiest label, but still a pretty great wine.

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The north slopes of their vineyard shelters their Albarino grapes from the sun and while the label isn’t our favorite from a purely aesthetic point-of-view, this is one of the best American white wines on the market. Complex, fragrant, crisp and mellow, it’s ready to throw a tantrum, slam the door to its bedroom, crank up its music and refuse to come out if you don’t order it.

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Don’t you judge me!

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Read an article from the Los Angeles Times about Albarino.

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