Santiago Roma Albariño '24

Santiago Roma is a small, family-run Albariño producer in the Val do Salnés, the historic heart of Rías Baixas and arguably the most classic zone for the grape. This is coastal Galicia in every sense, green, humid, Atlantic, and deeply tied to the seafood culture of the nearby rías. The best Albariño from this part of Spain is not just crisp and refreshing, it has a real sense of place, with citrus, stone fruit, sea spray, and a saline edge that makes it one of the great white wines for the table.

What makes this arrival especially exciting is that this is the first time Santiago Roma’s wines have been imported into Chicago. That is increasingly rare in a region as globally popular as Rías Baixas, where so much of what reaches the market comes from larger, more commercial producers. Santiago Roma remains refreshingly small in scale, working carefully with old family vineyards and farming in a sustainable, organic-minded manner, which is not nearly as common in the damp, disease-prone climate of coastal Galicia as one might hope.

Their approach in the cellar is traditional but thoughtful, using native yeasts from their own grapes and aging the wine on fine lees to build texture without losing the freshness that makes Val do Salnés Albariño so compelling. The 2024 Santiago Roma Albariño is exactly what I want from this category, bright, mineral, aromatic, and incredibly easy to love. There is plenty of citrus and orchard fruit, but also that unmistakable Galician snap of acidity and salt. It is refreshing enough to drink on its own, but really belongs with food, oysters, mussels, grilled shrimp, pulpo, or just about anything pulled from the sea. A terrific Albariño!