Given how much enthusiasm we have shown for the white wines from this part of the world in 2016, it should not surprise anyone that it is a very good year for Spain’s West Coast and it’s classically styled Albariños. Palacio de Fefiñanes has been one of the blue chips from the area, as well as a personal favorite, and the 2016 is quite the beauty.
We’ve been working with Albariños in general for probably two decades or more and have seen all kinds of incarnations…aged ones, barrel fermented ones, etc. To us, Albariño is best served naked with all of the freshness, subtle tropical fruit, pear, tangerine and hint of honey flavor profile, great tension between the high-pitched fruit and the bright acidity, and that whiff of the sea and hint of salinity to the finish. Any other aspect that man introduces gets in the way of that core personality. Keeping it simple allows the wine to shine and deliver mouth-watering sip after sip that plays beautifully with seafood or merely as an eminently quaffable beverage on a warm afternoon.
Of course, as we have discussed many times, when a wine is served naked, you have to live with whatever Mother Nature gives you. Albariño, in a way resembles Viognier, though it is a much crisper beverage. If it is too ripe, it lacks the zing that makes it such a lively quaff. Without enough ripeness you’ve basically got a lean, acidic wine. Fefiñanes is usually one of the consistent stars of the region year in and year out. But like everyone else, they can only work with what they were given, which is usually pretty good.
In 2016, Nature was very good to them. The Palacio de Fefinanes Albarino Rias Baixas 2016 strikes the perfect balance with a certain tenderness to the expressive fruit, enough mouthfeel to engage the palate, and then the perfect cut of refined acidity. Fefiñanes is usually a ‘go-to’ in good vintages but this effort is a cut above and reminds us fondly of some of those brilliant efforts from this region in the last benchmark vintage, 2010.