A wine blog by Christina Stobert, sommelier & restaurateur
Lolo Albariño has been a favorite white wine of mine for the past year. This fine example of an affordable Albariño has spent many a lunch and dinner as my companion. It’s bright and crisp, with a clean citrus, melon, apple and herb feel. It’s well rounded like a 46 year old woman (that’s me) and goes with tapas, sushi, seafood, salad, or glides down your throat when you’re not eating.
I, myself find it’s like Reisling and Sauvignon Blanc started dating and got along really well. Maybe they had a threesome with Pinot Grigio. I can’t put my finger on it, but that’s what I’m tasting.
A classic Albariño wine (“alba-reen-yo”) is a light-bodied and loved for its high acidity, refreshing citrus flavors, dry taste, and subtle saltiness. Albariño is grown mainly in Northwest Spain and Portugal. This lively white wine has been thought to be a clone of reisling but dates further back to the 12th century where Cluny Monks grew it, made it and I’m sure drank plenty of it. The more expensive version, Paco & Lola Albarino 2018 demonstrates this, is a little more defined and worth the treat when you feel you deserve one. This is a grape not a lot of people know about yet, so it’s harder to find, but that’s changing as people are discovering how delicious it is.
Advice: Try new grapes, new wine varieties… so many people only drink what they know, ie Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay…………….. those dots are there because I’m yawning because I’m so bored of these wines. Don’t get me wrong, give me a glass of 60$ Chardonnay from California, and I’m all over it, but there are so many grapes to try.
“I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.”
― W.C. Fields, circa 1930’s