Wine Review - 2010 Albet I Noya Xarel-lo Classic: Quick Review After a Busy Weekend

Having only tried Xarel-lo at the odd wine tasting over the years we did not really know what to expect from this wine. It was a bit of an unknown.  What we found out quickly is that this is basically as close to Sauvignon Blanc as a grape can get without being called Sauvignon Blanc.  It was a very crisp and refreshing white wine and went great after a long day working in the garden.  It had the tropical fruit notes and crisp acidity of good Sauv Blanc but in our opinion finished completely different.  It had an almost bitter orange finish....not bitter bad per se but still a touch on the bitter side.

If you were to put a glass of this next to a NZ Sauv Blanc you would be hard pressed to notice a difference.  The wine producer Albet I Noya says it produced in the Ordal Mountains and was cold macerated and was in stainless most of the way (no oak).

Overall, a nice warm weather drinking wine with a lot of grapefruit and green mango on the palate.  Really quite nice and was just under $18 locally so not a bad price.  Based upon that it is a buy recommendation. If you like crisp and dry whites this one will work for you and certainly saying Xarel-lo instead of Sauvignon Blanc sounds pretty cool.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

	Tasting Notes:	Score:
Sight (0-5)	Light and clear wine, greenish to very pale yellow.  It looks like Sauv Blanc.	3.5
Smell (0-5)	Strong tropical notes of starfruit and kiwi. Again, think Sauv Blanc.	4.0
Taste (0-10)	Crisp and dry with notes of grapefruit, green mango with a bitter orange finish.  Interesting but not off-putting finish that is definitely not like any Sauv Blanc we have had.	7.5
	Total:	15.0 / 20  (75.0%)

Keep on drinking!

Chris & Shannon