October 2025 Blanco Y Branco Club

La Cana 2023 Navia Albarino Regular Price: $36.99 Club Price: $31.44 Buy Now

Everyone strap in and prepare yourselves because the Albariño Evangelist (me) is going to tell you more about this excellently briney and mineral-driven grape. We are also finally getting some warm weather in the Bay Area, so while summer was a bit overcast for ‘hot patio wines’, October is shaping up to have more than a few days that are perfectly suited for the protagonist grape in this month’s White selection.

Frequent visitors to our store may recognize the producer of this month’s Blanco selection. Bodegas La Caña is a benchmark producer of the Rías Baxias region and a familiar face on our shelves. However, ‘Navia’ label by La Caña is a step above their usual flagship wine. Put a pin in that. 

Backing up for a moment, La Caña is one of the wineries owned and overseen by Jorge Ordóñez, who revolutionized Spanish wine importing in the 90s and now produces tremendous expressions from a swath of Iberian terroirs. In fact, he was one of the first importers of Rías Baxias Albariño and despite initially being warned of consumer ‘disinterest’ in the grape, is currently the most well-known Spanish white varietal among contemporary consumers. 

Returning to the ‘Navia’ we have to take another quick detour into lees aging and battonage. While most Albariño is designed to be fresh and light, some stay behind in the cellar to deepen in maturity, complexity, and texture. The ‘Navia’ begins its life in some of La Caña's best and oldest vineyards, originally planted in 1970 and ‘78. Being some of the best fruit the Bodega has access to, an extra step is added to the winemaking process to maximize the potential of the wine. When fermenting a white wine, dead yeast cells drop out of the juice while sugar levels deplete and alcohol levels rise. These deceased yeast make up what winemakers call ‘the lees’, and most producers (red and white) let their wine rest with this sediment as it offers nuance and texture to the wine. To generalize, most Albariño sees 2 to 6 months of lees aging, but the Navia sees a full 12. On top of this, the wine saw biweekly battonage, or stirring of the lees to maximize their effect on the wine. This practice imbues the wine with subtle nutty and pastry-esque notes, as well as adding a fuller, more rounded texture (less water-like, if that helps paint a picture). 

Fear not, the wine is still very much spiritually Albariño: Bright, mineral-driven, and refreshing. We do encourage you to take a moment to look for an added layer of depth and roundness to this wine. In addition to the classic green apple, lemons zest, and crunchy tropical fruit notes, also look for flaky puff pastry, marzipan and fresh challah notes.

Alvaredos Hobbs 2023  Ribeira Sacra Godello Regular Price: $46.99 Club Price: $39.94 Buy Now

Of all places, this month’s White #2’s story actually begins in Sebastopol, California. Domestic wine drinkers may recognize the name Paul Hobbs, as it is a frequent featurette in wine publications, wine judgements, and fine wine lists. Breaking out as the mastermind behind Robert Mondavi’s Opus One, and the chief winemaker of Simi Cellars, Paul Hobbs (sharing the namesake as his winery) has been producing vintages of his own since 1991, and has since accrued many awards and high regard. Twice he has been named “Wine Personality of the Year” and some publications have called him the ‘Steve Jobs’ of wine, but take that as you will. In the 2010s, Hobbs branched outside of the United States, and began projects in Armenia, France, Argentina and Spain. Alvaredos-Hobbs represents his enterprise efforts in the northwest wines of Galicia.

On the other side of the story, Antonio López Fernández remembers watching his grandfather plant grape vines on the terraced slopes of his home town, Alvaredos. In the 90’s Fernández returned and began reacquiring the vines his grandfather sowed, and began harvesting and vinifying wine to sell to other wineries (this is actually a very common practice across the wine world). In 2014, he set out to create his own wines from his own winery, and teamed up with Hobbs in the pursuit of unlocking the potential of the deep soils high above the River Sil. The two forged a lifelong friendship, and Alvaredos-Hobbs was born. 

The vineyard sites of the estate are small, south-facing, and cover both the appellations of Valdeorras and Ribera Sacra. The winery produces just two wines, each featuring an indigenous grape of the region. Mencía, for the red and Godello for the white. We’ve written about Godello many times before for the Club, but to rehash, it is one of the classic grapes of Galicia, and is a bit softer and rounder that in’s counterpart white variety, Albariño. Still, Godello is capable of making world-class and ageworthy wines. Alvaredos-Hobbs’ Godello sits on deep, rocky, well-drained soils that it absolutely thrives atop. The wine is aged on the fine lees for 10 months in 500 and 2500 liter thick stave foudres. Pales straw in color, the wine carries aromas of white flowers, white nectarine, red haven peach, and yellow pear. The palate is creamy and expansive, with a strong backbone of slatey minerality. Pair with pan seared fish, white meats, and good company.