A Perfect Wine with Shellfish

From foodandwine.com

As a special treat, Cheri recently surprised me with a wonderful appetizer of littleneck clams in a saffron and wine sauce.  The sauce was thickened with a little flour, and in combination with the spices resulted in a flavorful, savory clam dish.  If you like shellfish then you should try this.   The recipe is from an old issue of Food & Wine magazine, originally printed in July 2010, as part of an article on Albariño.  You can see the full recipe on the Food & Wine website at http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/clams-sailors-way.

Not surprisingly (given the theme of the article), the wine of choice here is Albariño.  It is in the recipe and it goes perfectly with the clams.  The particular Albariño we used is from Columna, imported to the U.S. by Olé Imports, and hails from the Rias Baixas area of Spain.  Here are the particulars:

Wine:     2016 Columna Albariño

Winery Location:   Rias Baixas, Spain

Tasted By:   Neil & Cheri              Date:  July 2017 

Tasting Notes:  The vineyards are located next to the Miño river in Galicia (Northwestern Spain) within the Condado de Tea subzone of Rías Baixas.  This is the furthest south of the five wine making subzones within Rias Baixas, and the furthest from the Atlantic Ocean.  This particular wine is pale yellow, with green tinges.  It is brilliant.  The nose is full of apple and some background citrus.  On the palate the wine is clean and has a wonderfully purity of fruit.  There is the expected minerality, but the star is the apple, pear and citrus, all wrapped up with a refreshing lemon finish.  It has very good length and is perfectly balanced. 

Price Point –    We paid $16 at a local wine shop.  It is an excellent value at that price point.

Would We Buy It? –    we would buy more of this.  It is a top quality Albariño for under $20.  Value List material for sure.  This is perfect as a summer sipping wine as well as a great seafood companion.

If you’re a shellfish fan try this combination.  It really is a match made in heaven.

This wine is another great offering from Olé Imports.  We have been featuring a lot of their wines in our ongoing series on Spanish wine (you can start that series by clicking here).  This particular wine from Olé we just happened to stumble upon.  You can see more of Olé’s portfolio at http://www.oleimports.com/.

A votré sante!

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