Immersed in Albariño

For the past six weeks my feet have been mostly planted in South Jersey, but each Tuesday night my friends and I travel to Galacia, Spain. The weekly round trips aren’t over yet.

We’ve been riding a wave of Rias Baixas Albariño across the Atlantic, to taste bottle after bottle of the stone-fruity, minerally, every-so-slightly salty, seafood-loving white wine.

It’s all been part of the #winestudio Twitter discussions I wrote about last month. On Tuesday nights at 9pm ET, friends walk through my front door and allow me to share wine, food and conversation. It’s become my favorite part of the week. We connect and we learn about wine. It’s perfect.

Ninety percent of the grapes planted in the Rias Baixas DO are Albariño. The vines thrive in the terroir off the Atlantic coast with its mineral rich soil, ample rainfall, and more than 2,200 hours of sunshine per year.

Albariño needs no help. It makes a lovely, crisp wine when its all by itself in a bottle with no other grapes to support it. When it is blended with other grapes, it’s an altogether different wine, understandably. Albariño is traditionally drunk young. Almost all of the vintages we’ve had have been 2014 or 2015.

Condes de Albarei, 2014 ($15) and Altos de Torona, 2015 ($20) — one 100% Albarino, the other a blend — both excellent with seafood.

It makes sense for me to talk specifically about the wines from two weeks ago, because one was 100% Albariño and the other was a blend. With these two wines I served a creamy scallop and mushroom bake. I borrowed the recipe from Cindy Rynning’s Grape Experiences blog. She’s also participating in the Albariño #winestudio. Cindy used a combo of shrimp and scallops in her dish, but I chose to use scallops only.

Condes de Albarei, 2014: 100% Albariño. Lemon, lime, a little pinapple. Crisp. Nice minerality and acidity. Atouch salty. The wines from this region are some of the saltiest I have tried, but don’t take that the wrong way. It’s not as if someone took a salt shaker to them. This subtle saltiness is one of the reasons these wines so wonderful with seafood.

Altos de Torona, 2015: A blend of Albariño, Caiño and Loureiro. After several week of tasting 100% Albariño that had noticeable, but subtle difference, this blend totally surprised our palate. Peach was the first thing I tasted, with subtler citrus like lemon and lime. This was a tangy, bold wine that everyone at the table enjoyed.

Throughout the weekly tastings, I’ve been having fun putting different foods out on the table and seeing what pairs well with the Albariño. These foods were particular winners:

• creamy scallop and mushroom bake (of course)
• soy sauce and wasabi almonds
• cheeses: goat, blue with all; brie went well with some, not with others
• seasoned edamame
• toasts with ricotta and roasted butternut squash (recipe below)

I’m finding Albariño to be the perfect wine as spring moves along and thoughts turn to summer. When the Rias Biaxas #winestudio is done, I don’t doubt I’ll still be opening bottles of Albariño, especially when serving seafood.

Recipe: Garlic toasts with whipped ricotta, roasted butternut squash and honey/balsamic glaze

This is loosely based on a recipe I saw on Real Simple, and I don’t have specific proportions for anything, but it should be simple to replicate.

The toasts matched a little too well with my table cloth that night, but they were darn good with the Albariño.

1. For the butternut squash: Chop butternut squash (or buy pre-chopped like I did) into 1/4 inch squares. Drizzle with olive oil and place on a roasting pan. Roast at 400 degrees until they are soft and caramelized.
2. For the ricotta: Get some good, thick ricotta from a local dairy, or the best you can get from the store. In a bowl, whip the ricotta with heavy cream and a few good pinches of kosher salt (the amount will vary on how much ricotta you have), until the ricotta is smooth and spreadable like icing. Add heavy cream just a little at a time until ricotta is desired consistency. You can always add a little more, you can’t remove it if you make the ricotta too runny.
3. For the balsamic/honey glaze. Put balsamic in a pot and simmer until it has reduced to about a 1/4 in volume and is thick and sticky. (Your house will smell like an Easter egg and your kids will complain.) Stir in about a tablespoon of honey for every 1/4 cup of reduced balsamic you have.
4. For the toasts: From a good baguette, slice as many pieces as you want toasts. Lightly brush one side with olive oil and then sprinkle garlic powder on them. Place in a 300 degree oven until they are toasty on the outside but still soft on the inside.
5. To put it all together. On each toast, spread a nice amount of ricotta. Add a spoonful or so of roasted butternut squash on top of ricotta. Drizzle with balsamic/honey reduction — don’t be too heavy handed with the reduction.