These grapes come from a vineyard called Morro View – it’s located near San Luis Obispo on California’s Central Coast.

It’s called Morro View because it’s at good elevation and looks down onto the Morros, which are like a string of rounded hills. Imagine if a volcanic archipelago were on dry land.

It’s pretty cool and windy here, which is a good combination for some grapes, and Albarino likes it. But Albarino is not native to California. It’s native to another cool and windy region – Galicia, the Atlantic Coast of Northern Spain.

It has a long tradition here, planted close to the ocean in the Rias, which are sort of like fjords, weatherbeaten pieces of land that jut out into a pretty rough sea. There are many times where I’ve faced our Pacific Ocean and thought, “this is not a friendly ocean! It’s raw and powerful” And I love Albarino because it didn’t grow up with verdant valleys and sun-dappled soils. It made do in tough circumstances and so it captures the feeling of undomesticated coastline in the taste of its fruit.

Albarino was brought over to the United States only within the last 20 years, and it’s taken some time to understand this grape that has some extreme mouthwatering acidity that Galicians learned to manage over hundreds of vintages. When it’s done right, it should taste something like Blue Desert does:

Citrus fruit flavors are the first thing you will get – and lots of them. Then you may notice tastes or aromas of exotic fruit but more mildly, along with zesty finish that tastes lightly salted. As the wine warms up a bit, the fruit might get a bit more into the apple/pear flavors.

I like having this wine with cuisines that have umami and salty profiles with lots of texture – so sushi, thai and Vietnamese all work great. Seafood of all kinds responds well to Albarino’s combination of fruit and acidity and dry finish. But in our house where we’re often coming up with dinner at the last minute due to rampaging kids, Albarino has been the partner for some life-saving quick cheese and bread and salad meals.

It’s a refreshing wine that tastes like a pretty good cocktail – and that’s what we were going for. Something to drink while cooking, to put on some music or maybe a podcast or maybe some bad TV while chopping vegetables. It should make you happy and not demand your attention and look cool on the countertop. Boom.

Dominique Ramsey is a freelance artist based in Savannah, Georgia whose bold colors, vibrant animals and psychedelic themes caught my eye. With Blue Desert, I told her pretty much what I just told you and asked her to illustrate that. I think she got it right.

And the name Blue Desert? I first heard it in a David Attenborough documentary. The Blue Desert is the ocean away from the continental shelves – vast, unpopulated, the majority of the ocean. Our own version of interstellar space. The oceans are enormous, but the part that supports life is comparatively small. I think of the Blue Desert when I need to remember how important it is to care for what we already have.

December 10, 2020