INTERNATIONAL ALBARIÑO DAY PAZO DAS BRUXAS

albariño

Atlantic Style, Galician Spirit

Let’s celebrate International Albariño Day, dedicated to a wine and a variety that deserve such an honour. 

Variedad arlbariño
The Albariño Variety

On the northwestern edge of the Iberian Peninsula, south of Finisterre, the land encounters the Atlantic Ocean in a briny, misty embrace. Enveloped in myths and legends, this small corner of the world holds the secret to the country’s finest white wines.

Albariño has its roots in Galicia and Portugal, but the DO Rías Baixas appellation of origin might be where the variety finds its most exemplary expression. The region lies between valleys and meanders, carved by the Ulla and Miño rivers, and the rías – or estuaries – of Vigo. 

The wildest parts of Galicia, with its untamed nature, are home to an enclave whose history is steeped in Celtic heritage, a spiritual past that still pervades a place where the land and sky are inextricably linked by atavistic deities and ancestral cultural practices. 
 

Paisaje de Galicia, con las vides de albariño en primer plano
A Galician landscape with Albariño vines in the foreground

The Variety and the Vineyard

  • When tending to the vineyards, winegrowers must be aware of some decisive factors, including humidity, mist, and frost, which mainly form in the hollows. 
  • Working the soil is essential to prevent humidity from affecting the vine and inducing fungal diseases. This also explains why most vines are trained along pergola trellising, which, although a product of necessity, has become an iconic image of the region, resembling a Modernista-style garden of exuberant nature.

Albariño is one of the finest terpenic varieties. (Terpenes are aromatic compounds found in a wide variety of plants, flowers, fruit, vegetables, and herbs). Its primary aromas are distinctive, and the variety’s rich aromatic complexity has always given Galician wines their immediately identifiable elegance.

The Wines

  • Generally speaking, Albariño wines are greenish yellow in colour; extraordinarily aromatic, well balanced, endowed with exceptional acidity and a magnificent palate.  

  • When young, the wines are intensely fresh, floral, and fruit laden. As they mature over time, they acquire more complex aromas reminiscent of ripe apples, banana, even caramelized honey. 

  • On the palate, they are fresh, somewhat unctuous, marked by excellent acidity that keeps them lively and flavourful.
     


Pazo das Bruxas: The Wine

  • The wine represents Familia Torres’s first winemaking incursion in the region. In 2012, the fifth generation of Familia Torres embarked on a winemaking project in Rías Baixas with the production of its first Albariño, named Pazo das Bruxas, made from grapes primarily grown in the Valle de Salnés subzone.   
Pazo das Bruxas, DO Rías Baíxas, elaborado con la variedad albariño
Pazo das Bruxas, DO Rías Baixas, an Albariño varietal
 

In its brilliant yellow hue and golden highlights, Pazo das Bruxas evokes its native land. From its intense nose, the wine leads us into a world of white flowers, citrus, and fresh stone fruit, culminating in a lovely, creamy palate sustained by a backbone of firm acidity that carries through on the long, flavourful finish. Perceptible throughout are echoes of ocean mist and brine

  • Pazo das Bruxas is a vinous tribute to the folklore and nature of Galicia. According to legend, in rural estates known as pazos, amid forests and vineyards, Galician witches once conjured spirits with their dances and spells. And so, the sap coursed through the vines, nourishing them with vitality, just like the Albariño grapes that bring this wine to life.