This wine’s vintage is not a typo. At a recent tasting at The Wine Society there were three old albariños on show and the 2008 was head and shoulders above the other two. How on earth had these wines lasted this long?
Albariño is my favourite Spanish white grape and I usually expect to drink these floral, summery whites in the year following their production. Pazo Señorans happens to be one of my favourite wineries and I drink gallons of the stuff on my summer holidays, but this Selección de Añada cuvée is a very different beast to the everyday drinking label.
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Clearly the finest grapes are used, but it is the extended lees ageing (30 months), which “nourishes” the wine with immense stability and development potential, coupled with the keen levels of acidity, which are the cornerstones to this wine’s extraordinary longevity.
In contrast to other white styles, which hang on for a few years prior to expiring, this wine is still brimming with meadow-flower and citrus pith flavours and vigorous acidity. It is more than a decade old and it looks ravishing.
This is not a curio or a gimmick – Señorans has been doing this for years, but in the past you would have to go to a Spanish three-star Michelin haunt to find the wines. Thanks to the wise palates at The Wine Society we can all indulge in this fabulous nectar from the comfort of our own dining-room tables.
2008 Pazo Señorans, Selección de Añada Albariño, Rías Baixas, Spain £39.50, The Wine Society, 01438-741177, thewinesociety.com
Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com)
This article was originally published in MoneyWeek