2015 Granbazan Don Alvaro de Bazan Albarino Rias Baixas 750 ml

If you were going to send just one bottle into outer space to express the beauty of Spanish Albariño—the vinicultural equivalent of the Voyager Golden Record—this would be it.

A region-defining effort from Spain’s wave-drenched coast, the 2015 Granbazán Don Alvaro de Bazán Albariño Rias Baixas is 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 the streamlined elegance of shallow, granitic soils like an electrical current.

The team at Granbazán 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 twelve hours, achieving terrific intensity. The free-run juice ferments with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel vats, locking in purity, before maturing for three years on fine lees.

This is the kind of bottling people have in mind when they call Granbazán the quality leader in Rías Baixas. Founded in 1981, the estate helped move the region’s winemaking into the modern age by pioneering the use of the latest vinification equipment, trained enologists, free-run juice, and techniques like cool fermentation.

Of course, it helps that Granbazán possesses 35 acres of some of the best terroir in Val do Salnés, where the oldest vineyards are centered. Stiff ocean breezes take the sting out of the bountiful Spanish sun, infusing grapes with sea-spray freshness and oyster-shell salinity. 

The result is a white wine of coiled energy and burnished richness, peeling off layers of white peach, orange peel, and green apple—a bottle you owe it yourself to experience.