Albarino Wine Tasting - Episode #241

May 23, 2007

Today Gary goes after the hot white wines of Spain.

Comments on this episode(108) Leave a comment ›

“Did I totally miss the QOTD? hmmmm…. Well anyway another episode en…” by Dessert Wine Nerd
“first Albarino i tried was called LICIA - same name as my wife. She g…” by ted vaughn
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Wines tasted in this episode:

2005 Nora AlbarinoSpanish Albarino
2005 Pazo Senorans AlbarinoSpanish Albarino
2005 Pazo Pandol AlbarinoSpanish Albarino
2005 Havens AlbarinoNapa Other White Wine

Links mentioned in todays episode.

WLTV Recap Show Thread

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108 Responses

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about 2 weeks ago

Dessert Wine Nerd
Did I totally miss the QOTD? hmmmm…. Well anyway another episode enjoyed by all. I guess thats just me since Im the only one in the house that watches. But no matter. Another white ive never heard of. Def. something I need to check out to expand my tastes.
about 3 months ago

ted vaughn
first Albarino i tried was called LICIA - same name as my wife. She grabbed it on the way out of a wine store in Rochester, NY. It was killer - refocused my love of white wine. It is the best wine to pear w/ creamy soups.

In my opinion, Albarino and White Rhones are the best white wine on earth….followed by the wines of Loire - then white bordeaux.
about 4 months ago

JF
Great episode, Mr. Vaynerchuck. I just tried Albarino so I checked out what you had to say for you are the expert. Thanks for doing an episode on this!
about 13 months ago

Marianne
Hi Gary.
Very nice video …. I’m a big fan of Spanish wines.
I enjoyed your albariño tasting, and I am going to search for more tastings of Spanish wines you might have done on you website.
But ….
I wonder why you didn’t taste the 2006 vintages.
Albariño is a wonderful grape, but the wines you tasted are made for fresh consumption. So I think that if you would have tasted the 2006 you would have been more enthousiastic (still).

Congratulations with this new way of educating us on wine!
Marianne Rembrandt
Netherlands
about 13 months ago

Johan
Why didn’t you try any of the great Portuguese alvarinhos?
/J
about 13 months ago

Daniel Rymer
Thanks for showing us a new grape. I typically like the ones I’ve never heard of more than the big boys (cab, merlot, etc).
about 13 months ago

Susan
Gary-Thanks for all of the wine education!!!!
Will try Albarino(especially the Nora) SOON!!
about 13 months ago

Annapolitan
OK Gary, I’m crying “Uncle”! This Albarino episode has flushed me out of the bushes. Ive been lurking for over 200 episodes, but albarino is enough to turn any Peeping Tom into a doorbell pusher. My wife(Mrs. Pinot Grigio)flipped out upon tasting a Salneval Albarino. It’s going to come in handy this summer on the Chesapeake Bay. Thanks. Give your teacher sister a big Kudos for me.
about 13 months ago

Julian
Bubble Brothers needed an Albariño in the range, and we tasted more than twenty bottles from nearly as many producers. They were all dull, and all too expensive by far. Then the next morning a late arrival turned up, and it was great. So that’s the one we stock. Tamara from Pazo Pondal was twisting my arm for some business last week at the London Wine Fair. It was good to re-taste her wines, but one Albariño’s enough for us at the moment.
about 13 months ago

Ryan
We love Albarino and have been drinking it all month. Good to see it finally making headways in the states. Now onto all of Galicia’s other great whites..when is the Godello video coming out?
about 13 months ago

wallace
the nora is a good wine. i highly encourage everyone to seek out the Valminor 05′ it is wonderful for around 10 bucks. albarino rocks!
about 13 months ago

Karl Laczko
I love Spanish wines but surprisingly have not had a really good Albariño (only had one or two ever, and both were far too green and acidic). Based on this episode I’ll have to give them another try, although “Razor-sharp” just might be too much for my palate.
about 14 months ago

YoungDave
Great EP., BIG G! — You KNOW I’m including an Albariño in my next 1/2 case!

QOTD: Man, I love WLTV… I really do.
about 14 months ago

Justin S
My .02; Albarino rocks out with it’s cock out!
about 14 months ago

Bobinnati
OK Bossman, I do agree with you. You have WAY too freakin’ much time on your hands……

Thanks GV for introduction to another wine that I did not know about. I also enjoy the character of the nose on whites. To be honest with you, even though I love red wines most, I find more variety and complexity in the nose on a lot of whites. Not sure if that is my olfactory peculiarity or if that is something others also observe. I am still in a SIWBM, but I have a list of stuff to buy once the embargo is over………including Al-bah-reen-yo.

I don’t think I can remember an episode without a QOTD. Have you slipped a cog?
about 14 months ago

SoCal
G,
Napa wins?
QOTD: ?
Thanks of the white wine education.
about 14 months ago

Matt the Lurker
QOTD - Question of the day! Question of the day! We want a… question of the day!
about 14 months ago

Bossman
OS,

You can’t search for “shirt”, “tee” works but if it’s the pickle you want, “pickle” will weed out the dead deer (and thankfully doesn’t include any of Gary’s tasting notes…. otherwise we’d be wading through mucho entries). Oddly enough only the Vayniac shirt has “shirt” in the description.

I’d link to it but I don’t want to make assumptions on size lest you decide to sit on or send your big brother after me as the case may be.
about 14 months ago

DK44
Vay-ner-chuk backwards is Chuk-ner-Vay.

Great episode. I’m a fan of Albarino. Had my first bottle with grilled lobster….yummm
about 14 months ago

C.W. Miller IV
I discovered Albariño a few years ago and it has fast replaced my old friend Pinot Grigio as my hot summer with seafood wine of choice.
about 14 months ago

TSchampaert
Nice ep. Funny, I had just opened a bottle of Nora da Neve 2005, the somewhat more high end cuvee. Zingy, lot of structure (awful lot), falvours of cumquat, passion fruit and lime, great, cross between riesling, viognier and bouboulenc. Love it.
C ya
about 14 months ago

lifestooshort
great episode, but is this grape sweet? is it dry? what up? (not lettin’ go of this issue, my friend!)
about 14 months ago

JOEinLA
Nice switch from the usual white suspects~

QOTD from Jen

….2003 Beaujolais Nouveau in Paris. 7:00 in the morning, thanksgiving week, my first time in Paris, off the plane and my hotel wasn’t ready for me. I dropped my bags there and walked until I stumbled across an outdoors Farmer’s Market setting up for the Saturday Morning. All French farmers.After several minutes of me mumbling and stumbling around it, a 23 year old English speaking French girl took me under her wing and brought me to each vendor, introducing me. By the end of the row of vendors, I was eating a freshly made, steaming hot… Ham and Cheese Crepe… ( REAL Ham and REAL French cheese). 8 am in the 40 degree weather with my new girl of my dreams. Suddenly the Beaujolais Nouveau arrives by truck since it was the third weekend in November (remember?). The old farmers were partying, filling my plastic cup,dinking and beaming toothles smiles and lot’s of bottles. Me, loving the crepe, the smell of the market in the cold air, Paris waking up……and that beautifully thin delicious perfect wine washing it all down!

One of the best experiences in my lifetime.
about 14 months ago

JayZee
Excellent episode. To be honest, these are the types of episodes I love on WLTV - featuring a slightly different varietal (not the common 5 reds and whites) or wine region. Most excellent, my friend. But wait! No QOTD? Oh, I see Jen asked one earlier in the comment list. Okay, let’s see, a wine that brought tears to my eyes - the Gruet sparkling wine that we used for the toast at my wedding. And it wasn’t because of the quality or lack thereof of the wine.
about 14 months ago

Fco.
Agh…first time posting here, I thought I would try to come in and type Vaynerchuk backwards, but I see I was beat to it by the posee. In any case, I started watching this a short while ago, I am about ten episodes in and I know that is nothing compared to the entire archive you have here, but I have to say I am loving the show. I am new to wines to, so I really do not know squat, needless to say I am getting schooled here real nicely…