Whatever way you look at it, Albariño is white wine’s mysterious wild child! Myths and legends about its origin stretch from Germany to Burgundy. However, the truth is far more organic.
Albariño has been cultivated in Galicia for more than 1,000 years, first by the Romans. It was “domesticated” by these wily vignerons from fruiting vines growing wild in the forests of north-west Spain.
Why did they select this particular wild child?
For many years it was just one of several wild selections that made up the so called “elite” white wines of Galicia – a sort of masseau selection of wild varieties grown and harvested together. Slowly but surely, the variety that would become Albariño became selected more often, probably because it was the most naturally adapted to the humid maritime climate, the sandy, granitic soils and the generous sunshine of the Pontevedra province, adjacent to the cool Atlantic. And, more than likely, it produced the most delicious, refreshing, salty white wine – a perfect partner for the abundance of fresh seafood harvested from the Ria de Arousa.
Why is this unique white grape, making incredible, weighty, in-vouge, refreshing white wines, not seen in other vineyards of the world?
Well, it is. But not often. And the wines certainly haven’t reached the heights of the wines of Val do Salnés. This may be partly because its reputation outside Spain is relatively new, dating back to the early 1970s, making it more akin to the new world than its famous European neighbours. Even today, the Rias Baixas region is small, only 4,300 ha. of vineyard in over 22,500 tiny plots of mostly pergola-trained vines.
Another reason might be the nature of Albariño itself. It’s a weird, almost peasant like prima donna grape variety. Far from being a blue blood, it even looks weird. Albariño loves the humid ocean sunshine rather than the continental sunshine and hates the heat and dryness combination that you find in so many new world wine regions. The granite and sand soils it loves work only because the area has a lot of rainfall, including during harvest, and these soils drain easily and warm up early in the spring. It’s not a classic cool-climate grape, but a maritime, warm summer-climate grape that embraces rainfall. It hates drought, ripens to quite high natural alcohols, but also retains very high malic acid and low pH. All that is a bit weird in the world of fine wine. It’s like the world’s white version of Nebbiolo!

Linda & Ian Quinn’s Two Terraces Vineyard in Mangatahi, Hawke’s Bay
Now, there is a place I know that does share a lot of the same climatic and geographic characteristics of the Val do Salnés…Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. Here, we have a freakishly similar climate with enough summer warmth, humidity, and always some rainfall at harvest; a cool ocean only a stone’s throw away from the vineyards and youthful soils formed from rocks, sand and silt. However, it is the wines produced here that suggest Albariño may have found a southern hemisphere home.
Since 2018, we have been making Albariño from two small plots of young vines in the Fratelli and Two Terraces vineyards. From that very first vintage we saw the complex fruit, the salt, the compelling weight and length on the palate, the refreshing deliciosity that is Albariño. These young vines have shown me enough to suggest we may be onto something – and now I have a good reason to visit Pontevedra much more regularly!
Eric Asimov you are right. It depends – almost entirely on finding exactly the right place to grow it. And those places are rarer than a tuatara in the wild!
Steve Smith MW
Founder and Estate Director
Pyramid Valley, Smith & Sheth, Lowburn Ferry
Aotearoa New Zealand Fine Wine Estates
March 2025 marks the release of the 2024 Smith & Sheth CRU Heretaunga Albariño, the first of our Hawke’s Bay wines to be released from this exceptional vintage.