Bodegas Pablo Padin – Fizzing good wines from DO Rías Baixas

The fact is that there has been a quietly healthy production of sparkling wine in Spain for many years. Areas which are not within the permitted cava zones have simply gone ahead making their sparkling wines with their own preferred grapes. It’s true that such wines haven’t brought in the riches that the far more famous Cava Houses have enjoyed, but fizz from outlying areas has nevertheless been an integral part of many bodegas’ wine portfolio.

Denominación de Origen Rías Baixas has long been famous for its delightful, aromatic, sensual, fruit driven dry white wines, made with arguably Spain’s best white wine variety, Albariño. Well the wonderful news that filtered through the wine related media towards the end of 2012 was that the DO has, for the first time ever, decided to allow Sparkling Wine production in the area to carry the official seal of the DO Rías Baixas!

Bodegas Pablo Padin is one of the bodegas that has been first out of the blocks. Itself a well established and multi-plaudit winning member of the DO for its florally scented, deeply flavoured white wines, it has also been making Sparkling Wines, but without the DO epithet. Pablo Padin fizz now proudly sports the official DO seal and I can tell you, the wine is excellent!

Feitizo da Noite (Spell of the Night) has an emblematic label figuring a black cat whose astonished and wary, wide-eyed look is also picked out on the neck foil, but in opposite black and white (a marketing dept, triumph!).

This, perhaps the first DO Rías Baixas Vino Espumoso (Sparkling Wine) on the market, is priced at 15€ in the bodega, and honestly, it’s well worth the money! The wine has the typical bready patisserie nose on first opening but this aroma is soon joined by typical white peach fruit and white flower fragrance.

I’m often told at tastings that whilst there are always yeasty aromas associated with sparkling wine, few clients actually find much fruit, often making them prefer white wine which invariably gives more aromatics. Well this is a wine for those who miss the fruit aromas – unsurprisingly really as Albariño is always classed as one of the super-aromatic varieties.

However don’t think that this 100% Albariño Brut fizz is in any way insubstantial – no way! It has a lingering finish and, though it is a perfect aperitif and celebratory, success-toasting wine, it also has the depth of flavour to make it an excellent accompaniment to food.

I love this wine! Its 8 grams of residual sugar classify it as a dry, Brut, sparkler, but also make it an ideal partner to any cuisine that often includes a touch of sweetness, Chinese and Indonesian for example, as it has the necessary acidity to cut through the sweetness but also the flavours to complement.

Buy some of this Vino Espumoso, serve it, unidentified, to your friends and wait for their delighted comments! (www.pablopadin.com)

Written by Colin Harkness

www.colinharknessonwine.com