Albamar Albino 2025

Albamar was set up in 2006 by Xurxo Alba Padín in Cambados, in the O Salnés heart of Rías Baixas in Galicia. He works with local varieties and a low-intervention approach to make Atlantic wines with a strong sense of place. Albino is a curiosity: a white wine made from Caíño Tinto, a red grape that accounts for barely one per cent of the region's plantings, pressed so that only the pale juice is used. O Salnés lies close to the sea on shallow, sandy granite soils, and the cool, damp Atlantic climate gives naturally high acidity and a saline, mineral character. The wine is fermented and aged for eleven months in French oak, which adds gentle texture and breadth while the barrel's slow oxygen exchange rounds the young fruit; the red-grape origin lends a faint red-fruited edge unusual in a white. It is pale straw with a hint of colour. The nose shows lemon, green apple and red currant over sea spray and brine, and the palate is dry and taut, salty and citrus-driven with a fine oak frame and a long coastal finish. Serve at 10 to 12 degrees.