{"id":464181,"date":"2026-05-24T01:35:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/464181\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T01:35:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:35:23","slug":"i-tasted-15-supermarket-albarinos-and-these-four-were-the-best-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/464181\/","title":{"rendered":"I tasted 15 supermarket albari\u00f1os and these four were the best \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are big fans of albari\u00f1o here. Like Marlborough sauvignon blanc, it has succeeded in a competitive market while still selling for a relatively high price. You don\u2019t see many R\u00edas Baixas under \u20ac10. It is worth noting that the overall standard is quite high too.<\/p>\n

Last year, martyr that I am, I tasted my way through 16 albari\u00f1os for an Irish Times article. I tasted some brilliant wines, but perhaps not surprisingly, most of the best wines cost \u20ac20 and some substantially more. The majority were available only from independent wine shops and off-licences. So, this year, martyr hat donned once more, I concentrated on less expensive wines, all costing under \u20ac20 and all from the multiples, so they should be widely available. <\/p>\n

I tasted 15 wines. Overall, I found the standard was pretty high. There were one or two sweetish wines and a few that lacked concentration, but most were clean, fresh and fruity and offered good value for money.<\/p>\n

Albari\u00f1o is the grape and R\u00edas Baixas the region. From a cool maritime climate, the wines have a lovely freshness. They certainly suit the Irish taste for fruity unoaked white wines. <\/p>\n

Locally, the Gallegos would drink these wines with copious amounts of shellfish and other seafood, including octopus. However, albari\u00f1o goes very well with a range of foods, and would be a good choice for parties \u2013 including weddings, if you can afford it. <\/p>\n

The four wines below were my favourites of this year\u2019s 15, but it was a close-run thing. I tasted very decent wines from Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Dunnes, Lidl, Aldi and more. I was concerned that some were from the 2024 vintage rather than 2025, but as albari\u00f1o ages quite well, the wines were still fresh and vibrant. <\/p>\n

Many of you will be familiar with the Paco & Lola brand, made by a large innovative co-op which is also responsible for the Valgalume below. The other big producer in the region is Mart\u00edn Codax, which also features below.<\/p>\n

\"\"Abellio Albari\u00f1o 2025, R\u00edas Baixas 12.5%, \u20ac17 (sometimes discounted to \u20ac12)<\/p>\n

Plump peaches and pears, with just enough cleansing citrus acidity to balance the rich fruit.<\/p>\n

From SuperValu<\/p>\n

\"\"Mart\u00edn Codax Albari\u00f1o 2024 R\u00edas Baixas12%, \u20ac19.99<\/p>\n

Crisp and fresh with lively citrus zest and green apple fruits. <\/p>\n

From SuperValu; O\u2019Briens; winesoftheworld.ie<\/p>\n

\"\"Vagalume Rias Baixas, Denominaci\u00f3n Orixa 202412%, \u20ac19.99<\/p>\n

Fragrant fresh aromas, textured stone ripe fruits with a nicely rounded finish.<\/p>\n

From O\u2019Briens<\/p>\n

\"\"Paco & Lola Albari\u00f1o 2024, R\u00edas Baixas13%, \u20ac15-17<\/p>\n

Floral aromas, racy and refreshing lemon peel and succulent orchard fruits. <\/p>\n

From Dunnes Stores; Tesco; SuperValu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We are big fans of albari\u00f1o here. Like Marlborough sauvignon blanc, it has succeeded in a competitive market…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,709,17328],"class_list":["post-464181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-magazine","tag-wine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}