What’s Albarino, you may ask.  Only one of the most crisp and delicious whites EVER!  Very food friendly.  Very hot-weather friendly.  You could just say this is a friendly and pleasant wine. And I suppose I just did.

Albarino is known as a Spanish grape, but is also grown in Portugal- where they spell it Alvarinho, and sometimes put in it Vinho Verde.  It’s known for it’s somewhat intense, distinctive nose- you could say it’s a little eager to get to know you.  The aromas of ripe lemon, green apples and some herby-ness jump out of the glass.  Color-wise, it’s a really bright, almost sparkly yellow, so it definitely gets your attention.  It’s happy to be alive!

I can think of sooo many things that this wine would taste good with- seafood would probably be the best bet.  A seafood bouillabaise, herb-fried or grilled calamari… any kind of nice white fish like grouper or snapper with a white wine & butter sauce… mmm.  Perfect.  You could even get away with a light, light cream sauce with herbs, pasta, shrimp, and whatever else you want to throw in there.  A pungent cheese like Goat or Brie would be nice, too.

It was given 90 points by Wine Enthusiast! Nothing better than an inexpenive 90-point wine, in my book.  I could talk about how good it is ’til I’m blue in the face, but once y’all see that 90pt rating, you’ll be all over it.  I know you will.  We have this wine at Solstice as a feature right now which means you can drink it on a Monday or Tuesday for (gasp!) $16!  Any other night of the week it will cost you $32 a bottle.   UNLESS you read your Solstice email from yesterday and print out the little goodie that’s in it!  *hint hint*

And a quick side note- I was informed the day after my Opala Vinho Verde post that there is some kind of problem with the distributor being out of the country (yawn) and it has not come in on schedule.  My blood boiled just a bit, because I would never want to pump y’all up to try a wine, only to be told you couldn’t have it.  Horrible!  From now on, I will stick with wines that are physically HERE, or I will send you to the Gourmet Shop to see my fellow redhead, Bryan.  Thanks for reading!