So a friend brings over six bottles of Albarino sent her by Snooth for a virtual tasting (she's a wine blogger). They'd been open about four days.
2017 Adegas Valmiñor Albariño Rías Baixas O Rosal
There is a nearly off-dry sweetness to this one. A pervasive but not unattractive canned pear note on the nose and palate remind more of grenache blanc than albarino, but there's a velvet texture here I love along with a bit of grass and pineapple. It's complex and delicious, if unexpected.
2017 Terras Gauda Rías Baixas O Rosal Albariño
Strong flavors, very concentrated, but it's got some secondary action going on because it's spritzy. I know this wine from prior vintages and it should have shown better.
2016 Adega Condes de Albarei Albariño Rías Baixas
Good and fruity in a non-serious, crowd-pleaser, deck-wine kind of way.
2017 Soc. Coop. Vitivinícola Arousana Albariño Rías Baixas Paco & Lola
Pale color, very crisp and refreshing with some lime peel and grassy notes. Blind, my first guess would have been Sauv Blanc. Liked it a lot.
2016 Fillaboa Albariño Rías Baixas
My favorite of the six. Classy, with better concentration, body and character than most. Quince, apple and lemon fruit.
2016 Adegas Galegas S.L. Albariño Rías Baixas Don Pedro de Soutomaior
Initially attractive yellow fruit shows off a lot of dust and exciting saline minerality, but with time a diesel note moves in like lava and just mows down every other flavor. (Can you tell I just watched a 30 minute U.S. Dept of Geology film on the 1960 eruption at Kilauea?) I suspect it didn't like being open this long.