October 19, 2023 - Initial bitter attack on first sip and swished, but not in finish. Stone fruit but what? Peach? Nectarine? Just the slightest hint of grapefruit on the finish, what I call tired grapefruit. Ever so slight and very fleeting. Taste concentrated mid to front of tongue. Gives the sensation of bitter grapefruit without the actual flavor. Acid and unique flavor cut through food and resets taste buds. Don't think this would work with red tomato sauce. Keep to cream or olive oil. Ready now. Better than average albarino.
July 19, 2023 - Great QPR. Nice acidity and very refreshing on a warm evening.
January 10, 2023 - Really good QPR. No bitter finish that I sometimes get on Albariño. Good acid with notes of apple, pineapple, lemon to balance the acid. Good length and great complexity for a $14 bottle!
September 2, 2022 - Delicious, drank this with zataar crusted mahi mahi. Excellent cellar pick for this combo.
Fresh tasting and generally as expected nice petrichor note was perhaps slightly unexpected but definitely appreciated!
August 31, 2022 - Pale yellow without much nose. A few tight bubbles combine with high acidity to give it a really nice kick. White pepper on the finish and the taste has pepper, green apple, and orange. Really tasty and refreshing.
August 1, 2022 - Albariño Day 8/1. Okay. Fairly aromatic, with tropical fruit and vanilla notes. Not a lot of flavor, slightly viscous mouthfeel.
June 2, 2022 - Pale gold. Pronounced nose - grapefruit and peach, banana, pineapple, honeysuckle, lilac. Youthful. Dry, High acid, medium alcohol, medium body. Pronounced flavor - banana, pineapple, mango, grapefruit. Medium plus finish. Drink now, not suitable for further aging. Good.
May 6, 2022 - Light straw color. Nose of peaches, citrus, some pineapple, wet stone and something floral. Palate was apple, lemon, grapefruit with light herbal notes. Crisp acidity and very well integrated alcohol.
April 24, 2022 - Aromatic Albariño from arias Aida’s. Light golden color with slight effervescence in the glass. On the palate, lemon, honey and vanilla notes with well balanced acidity. Lovely slightly tart finish.
April 21, 2022 - Another Mass-Produced Albariño - Not This Time!
When I first saw the email ad for today’s wine, I paused, but only for a second. After all, this was just some everyday Albariño; or was it? After a little more reading of the ad, I discovered that the wine had garnered some 92- and 93-point reviews. That’s not that common for such a simplistic wine. Continuing to the bottom of the page (that’s where the important stuff is – PRICE), I saw the wine sold for only $14.99. Great reviews, great price, I had to delve into the wine:
Bodegas La Cana Albariño 2020
From the Denominacion de Origen (D.O.) of Rias Baixas, this 100% Albariño comes to us from Jorge Ordóñez and his winemaking team to demonstrate the potential that Albariño shows as a high quality, serious varietal, demonstrating the complexity, intensity, and longevity Albariño can achieve when sourced from old vineyards and using serious winemaking practices.
Traditional dry farmed and practicing organic, the vines are cultivated and harvested completely by hand. The grapes are whole-cluster-pressed, with 35% of the juice fermented using 500L & 600L older puncheons and demi-muids (a French term for 600-liter capacity oak barrels), and the remaining fermented in stainless steel. Further aged for 8 months in both barrel and tank.
To clarify, in my research I found someone mentioning that the wine sees no oak. Not so. While fermenting and aging, the wine does see some oak, mostly 2nd use and older. I like to point out for those not as involved in wine, the use of whole cluster pressing has gained momentum. Allowing the juice to remain in contact, even for a short time, with the stems, can add complexity and other various notes to wine without necessarily adding oak flavor.
All of this points to a wine with a creamy lemony mix with nice acid (not too sharp), a hint of apple (not the computer company), and minerality. It’s a great food wine and well deserved of those 92- and 93-point reviews. At $15 this is a keeper!
Cheers