It is the coolest of green grapes, and becoming a hot ticket in the wine world. Those – we – ardent followers of the great Alvarinho fruit from the Vinho Verde region in northern Portugal have for some time known that its wines deserve naming among the world’s great whites. Crisp and bright, yet woven from reams of multi-layered complexity. Tense and tasting of cold, yet opening up into the mouth to form a broad layer of glowing sunlit charm.
And ever since it was announced that Alvarinho has been approved for planting in Bordeaux due to its ability to handle dry and hot conditions in an apparently climatically changing world, the profile of this variety has been elevated. Its presence has been noted. Its wines are receiving attention from previously uninterested circles. The time for Alvarinho has come, and that time is now.
The cultivar’s home lies in Portugal’s north-west, and across the border into Galicia, Spain. There, Alvarinho is called Albariño, and while the same variety, the Spanish versions have not attained the reputation for excellence for which the wines from Vinho Verde are known.

Vinho Verde is big wine country. Some 21 000ha of it, mainly whites, with Alvarinho being the main quality player along with Loureiro. For a long, long time, the image of Vinho Verde wines was driven by humungous brands of blended wines, such as Casal Carcia, Gatão and Lagosta which all contain a portion of Alvarinho and Loureiro, and a few others. Brisk, gluggable wines with a slight, understated fizz.
But what happened with Alvarinho in Vinho Verde is similar to the story of South African Chenin Blanc. Namely, its potential for a quality wine proposition was identified by visionary winemakers. Who started making site-driven wines, honed and polished into premium elixirs reflecting geographical provenance and astute cellar skills.
These single variety wines still bear the Vinho Verde regional seal, yet have over the past two decades changed the trajectory of the region, of which the wine world takes serious notice.
To illustrate and illuminate the state of play in the Alvarinho/ Albariño court, Joaquim Sá of Amorim Cork recently hosted a tasting of wines made from this variety originating from Portugal, Spain and – yes – South Africa.
There were eight wines in all – four from Portugal and two each from Spain and the Cape. All the Portuguese wines were from Monção E Melgaço, the most northerly of Vinho Verdes nine appellations, while the Spanish numbers originated from Rías Baixas.
The Cape wines were from Upper Hemel-en-Aarde and Devon Valley in Stellenbosch, and underscored the fact that Alvarinho does not have to be grown in areas where sardines and paella are national dishes to reach its full potential in finished wines.

Here, the take-out was that the variety overpowers terroir. The fruit is frigid and succulent, lean yet tautly muscular with broad shoulders leading to trim hips. Aspects evident in all eight wines tasted. It is a classy white grape, easily able to find a table among Riesling, Chablis and Sancerre.
Despite sourcing their grapes from singular sites, the Portuguese winemakers deploy a variety of vinification techniques to place a thumb-print on their Alvarinho offerings. So wood is used, and of the barrel-aged wines tasted in the line-up tasted, the stand-out wine was a Granito Cru Alvarinho 2022 from Portuguese superstar winemaker Luis Sebra. His Granito Cru wines are fermented in a combination of new and used wooden vats, after which aging commences in barrel for nine months – Sebra choosing not to reveal the age of the barrels.
It is a wine of such electricity that not even the dumbest bout of Eskom inefficiency can stop the power. The typical cool sea-spray and flintstone barges into the mouth with tempered aggression, and once the wine finds solace on the palate it reaches a state of instantaneous calm, that same state a frenetic housewife enters when the day’s second Zopax kicks in. Here immense flavours are revealed, gorgeously delightful stuff like cantaloupe and persimmon, gooseberry and green fig, sorrel sap and Key Lime peel.
The wooding of the wine results in a long, satisfying drift over the palate, ending in a sigh of sea-shell and conifer.
Alvarinho in its unadulterated purest was to be had in the Mendes&Symington Contacto 2023, a collaboration between Anselmo Mendes, one of the pioneers of single varietal Alvarinho, and the Symington family Port dynasty who have for some time now ventured beyond the fortified wines that made of them a world brand. The joint venture is an unwooded Alvarinho from the Monção E Melgaço Vinho Verde appellation, picked and fermented in steel where it then spent three months on the lees.
The result is a piercing shard of crisp dry white wine laced with traces of morning ocean fog, oyster shell and cut green pear. Despite the steely thrust, the wine draws an immense feeling of pleasure and appreciation from the palate, reverberating on the senses still seconds after the dollop has disappeared down the hatch.

The Spanish Albariños were less arousing, being slightly fuller, with their hips showing a bit of a cellulite wobble.
Lagar D Cervera Albarino 2023 was by far the best of the two, a wine wanting to race alongside the Vinho Verdes, but slackening in pace, unable to find the zing so dominant in the Portuguese wines. This wine is unwooded, lees aged and shows a hit of peach and yellow plum that is tasty, but shadow the freshness that is just dying to jump out from beneath its fruity flamenco skirt, but never quite does.
The two South African wines in the line-up were a revelation. Newton Johnson, pioneers of Cape Albariño – they prefer the Spanish name – showed their 2023 wine, while Kleine Zalze from Stellenbosch brought a Project Z Alvarinho 2022.
Newton Johnson’s Albariño provides a master-class in the interpretation of this variety with its emphasis on texture and sensual fruit depth. Life-affirming freshness and tuning-fork precision are complemented by an alluring compounded layer of white fruit tastes with a slight, delectable salt-marsh herbaceousness. An unwooded wine given a whack of exposure to concrete vessel, this wine brings together two of Albariño’s most attractive features: sophistication and class, with an unashamed promiscuous moreish drinkability.
For its irreverent Project Z range, Kleine Zalze sources Alvarinho grapes from Devon Valley in Stellenbosch, with fermenting and aging done in the clay amphorae so loved by winemaker RJ Botha and his team. It is a fascinating, charming wine – not as rivetingly energetic as more classic examples, but astounding in the golden fruited shroud lightly lying over the discernible freshness. Yellow peach and grapefruit are prominent, with the desired Alvarinho wash of stone and salinity making a commanding appearance on the finish.
Here’s to hoping more Cape producers will hear Alvarinho’s calling, as this fabulous variety has – like all Portuguese immigrants – shown to be at home in South Africa and a firmer presence on the local vinous landscape will be appreciated by keen imbibers of brilliant, cool and classy white wines.
The full line-up tasted:
Monção E Melgaço, Portugal
Mendes&Symington Contacto Alvarinho 2023
Anselmo Mendes Tempo Alvarinho 2017
Anselmo Mendes Parcela Ứnica Vinho Verde 2021
Luis Sebra Granito Cru Alvarinho 2022
Rías Baixas, Spain
Fulcro A Pedreira Albariňo 2023
Lagar D Cervera Albariňo 2023
South Africa
Newton Johnson Albariňo 2023
Kleine Zalze Project Z Alvarinho 2022