Albarino: a new white in my flight

I went to a place in Temescal tonight for a research meeting (yes, yes, we did get some work done too) at a place I rather like for its odd ambiance:  Marc49.  They have a great wine list, and of course I love small plates to share.

They have a couple of flight options- actually, an interesting concept in flights- you can pick 3 for $11 or 4 wines for $14 and in any flight you put it together yourself.  So, I had a large wine menu and a flight to put together.  I'm a fan of theme flights, particularly linear ones so you can get a side-by-side tasting.  Anita got 2 whites and a red, and I went for an "Old World" Theme with one white and three reds.

The white I chose was a Spanish "Albarino" a varietal which was new to me.  Like many wines, the exact origin is hard to pin down, but it's an ancient French (Rhone) varietal that the Cluny monks probably brought to Spain in the middle ages.  It's generally made in Spain and Portugese wine production, and used as a blender.

What I was struck by was its nose first- very fetching, it's enticing, crisp and clean and with pepper, and  a faint floral backnote.  On the palate, it was surprisingly big-bodied for a white.  On the palate, it was amazingly acidic- sure, I was having ceviche as a small plate, but the lime I tasted in there was really something.  Ginny and Anita asked how it was, and all I could say was "wow, that's super acidic."  Crisp, clean, super acidic, and a short finish.  The body is surprisingly large when it's in the mouth, although my varietal chart puts it pretty much middle in the body taxonomy "medium" and high on acid.  It was quite nice.

Just for fun, in the rest of my Old-World flight, I went with a Tempranillo made in Argentina (okay, but I think of tempranillo as a muscley-grape) and  this was light with no umph.  Dirty, though, and true to old world style, you can taste the production in the wine as much as the wine itself.
Next, Anita got a Spanish Barbera that was also light, fruity, very very light on the barnyard and good, but light.

My next was a standard Cote-du-Rhone blend that was a real pleaser for Anita.  It was a 2010, super easy to drink, you could put half a bottle of that away before you even blinked.  Easy to drink.  Well blended, not much on the nose and a limited finish, but pleasant enough.

The last in my old world flight was a gamble:  they had a blend from LEBANON on the menu (do you love Marc 49?  Oh, yes you do!)  that was Cinsault, Syrah and Cab.  I liked it- didn't love it.  But it was not old world at all.  Not al all.  Very new- world tasting, fruit forward, bigger in body and higher alcohol much like  we in CA prefer.  Well blended, mostly, although you can pick out the cinsault and the syrah themselves.  I tried to imagine the cab alone but couldn't.  It had the spice and pepper you want from Cinsault- the velvet, the smoothness, and I think this was really enhanced with the Syrah, which of course is going to be adding your big fruits.

Overall, great wine, greater company, and terrific food.  And what do you know?  A cool white I never even heard of.  And a new varietal- if the monastic community were instrumental in its development in the middle ages, of *course* I'm going to love it...  This week, go try a Albarino folks.  You'll be surprised, at least.