Galician Wines You Should Be Drinking: Albariño de Fefiñanes
Bringing this series from Instagram over to the written word! I’m kicking things off with a classic: Albariño de Fefiñanes.
This is a classic Val do Salnés Albariño from a historic winery in Cambados, aka Albariño town, also home to the Festa de Albariño- the Albariño Party!
Bodegas del Palacio de Fefiñanes is in Cambados, in the Val do Salnés, inside the 16th-century pazo—Galician stone manor house— that gives the winery its name. The palace was originally built for the Viscount of Fefiñanes, and today it’s owned by Juan Gil de Araujo, the Marqués de Figueroa (and former president of DO Rías Baixas).
But beyond having historically significant digs, the winery is an OG in another sense: Palacio de Fefiñanes officially began bottling under the Albariño de Fefiñanes label in 1928—60 years before DO Rías Baixas was founded—making it the first producer on record to commercially bottle and label an Albariño wine. This makes Palacio de Fefiñanes not just one of the oldest producers in Rías Baixas, but also a key figure in the early days of bringing the grape to the attention of national and international customers. In 1994, Gil Araujo decided to modernize the winery and hired winemaker Cristina Montilla.
Their labels are just as historic as the wine itself—they were created in 1928 by Enrique Mayer, a jeweler and master craftsman from Santiago de Compostela known for his work with jet. The old-school label has the feel of an old manuscript or coat of arms, drawing on the stonework of the Palacio de Fefiñáns in Cambados. While many wineries update packaging to follow more modern design trends, Fefiñanes has kept a look that calls back to their long history.
They work only with Albariño grapes sourced from a handful of farmers in the Salnés Valley, many of whom farm old vines trained on traditional pergolas. Their flagship wine is a great way to get into the Albariño grape: it has crisp acidity and bright citrus notes of lemon and lime zest, green apple, along with a bit of white flower aromas, a mineral character, and a slightly saline finish. It’s a versatile pairing wine for pretty much anything, but the obvious choice would be shellfish, octopus, or other seafood! Bodegas del Palacio de Fefiñanes also produces a few special cuvées like the 1583 (partially aged in oak) and the III Año, which shows how well Albariño can evolve over time.
Overall, this is a bottle I come back to again and again for its consistency and the pleasure of drinking it. The wine always delivers and feels familiar without being predictable—always crisp, always elegant, and always a perfect match for whatever I happen to be doing. Just like the labels, the wines are pretty darn timeless, and that’s exactly why their Albariño is a wine I never tire of drinking.