2018 Granbazan Don Alvaro de Bazan Albarino Rias Baixas 750 ml

If you were going to send just one bottle into outer space to epitomize the beauty of Spanish Albariño—the vinicultural equivalent of the Voyager Golden Record—Granbazán’s Don Alvaro de Bazan Albarino would be it.

A region-defining effort made only in the best vintages, it hails from a single plot at the highest, coolest point of the Finca Tremoedo vineyard—located just a half-mile from the sea—where 40-year-old vines channel through shallow, granitic soils like an electrical current. 

The result, in 2018, was a white wine with endless complexity, striking vitality, and astounding longevity. It earned a stunning 96-point score from Decanter, landing just one point away from the top Spanish wines of the vintage!

We love the sprightly, under-$20 Rías Baixas Albariños tailor-made for catch-of-the-day lunches, but this aged beauty is a whole other ball game. It’s made without oak, yet after nearly five years it’s heaped with the type of honeysuckle richness and profound structure you’d expect from cellared white Burgundy. 

Granbazán possesses 35 acres of some of the best terroir in Val do Salnés, where the oldest vineyards in Rías Baixas are centered, and the wine team approaches this cuvée with aging in mind. They hand-harvest tiny, exquisitely concentrated berries from the low-vigor vines and cold-soak them on the skins for 12 hours, achieving terrific intensity. The free-run juice then ferments with indigenous yeasts in stainless-steel vats, locking in purity, before maturing for three years on the fine lees.  

The result is a white wine of coiled energy and burnished richness, peeling off aromatic layers of stone fruit, citrus peel, and green apples. With this level of maturation, opening a bottle is a grand event.