2014 Raul Pérez Muti

Bodegas y Vinedos Raul Perez is in the appellation of Rias Baixas. The estate is owned by the young winemaker and wine entrepreneur Raul Perez, who grew up in a wine-producing family in northern Spain. His family owns Bodega Castro Ventosa, the largest producer in the area, and he worked there and elsewhere before branching out on his own in 2004 and making his own wines. Though the inland regions of northwestern Spain have traditionally been considered unsophisticated when it comes to winemaking, Perez is changing opinions about the historic wines of the region by making limited-production, noteworthy reds and whites from traditional grapes. He is helping revive the classic red Bierzo, a wine made of the Mencia grape, as well as the white wines made from the Godello and Albarino grapes. Perez wines win compliments and ratings in the low- to mid-90s from reviewers.

Galicia is in the far northwestern corner of Spain, just above Portugal on the Atlantic coast. It includes four provinces and five appellations. The appellations are Monterrei, Rías Baixas, Ribeira Sacra, Ribeiro and Valdeorras. In recent years the popularity of Albariño from Rías Baixas has brought new renown to the area, though it has been a wine producing region since at least the 14th century, when it was an exporter of grape vine cuttings. The coastal climate is wet, with an average of about 50 inches of rainfall annually, and it receives many hours of sun. Besides the Albariño grape, Galicia grows the white wine grapes Loureira, Caiño Blanca, Torrontés, Treixadura and Godello, another recently popular grape and wine. Red wines of the region are light and generally made of Mencia. Rías Baixes is the star of the region, with Albariño accounting for 90% of its production.

On the Iberian peninsula, one grape belongs to two different countries and is called by two different names: Albarino in Spain, Alvarhino in Portugal. Either way, it makes an underrated white wine that is akin to Riesling and fabulous with seafood and shellfish.