A stellar albariño with a wonderful price tag

published 15 June 2018

2017 Bodegas del Palacio de Fefianes, albario Ras Baixas, Spain(£16 from TheWineSociety.com, 01438-741177.)

Aside from having one of the most attractive wine labels I can think of, this shimmeringly beautiful albario is a thrilling drink, too. I am, truth be told, more than a little obsessed with great examples of this grape. And yet, at the top of the pile, there are only a few wineries that reliably release stellar albario wines year in, year out, and Fefianes leads the pack.

Bearing in mind the sheer excellence of this wine, the bottle wears a wonderfully affordable price tag. The 2017 arrived in the UK a few weeks ago and it is the finest wine from this vintage and grape variety that I have tasted this season.

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Dating back to 1904, the Fefianes estate was the very first to bottle this wistful, aromatic and yet racy grape. It was also the first to note the now famous Ras Baixas region on its labels, too. Drawing grapes from vines across 66 local estates and using some plots as old as 100 years, this is a thoroughly noble wine.

There cannot be many wines as serious as this that are drunk within a year of the grapes hanging on a vine!

Serve it with seafood

The wine represents the true essence of summer in Spain. It is drunk with the finest seafood and crustacea by the great and the good, and you simply must order this wine in for your summer parties. It is a genuine slice of history in a bottle.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.