@savoirpair If you don't know Txakoli, you don't know white wine!!! Uriondo Txakoli Bizkaiko Txakolina 2022 | Wine.com #txakoli ♬ original sound - SavoirPair
My favorite wine discovery of 2023 was Txakolina – or Txakoli, (CHU ko lee) as it’s known. We were visiting San Sebastian in northwest Spain, and absolutely fell in love with it. Gorgeous city, wonderful people and a food scene that’s one of the best in the world. More Michelin starred restaurants than any city in the world – so they told us.
Basque food is incredible – seafood dishes like Paella, fresh fish, aged ham, Octopus, lamb stew – it was all sensational. We enjoyed small plates known as Pintxos (pronounced PEEN chos), moving from one small tavern to the next in the old quarter of the city. And while we certainly paired some Tempranillo with many of the dishes, there was a local wine that won the vacation. Txakoli simply worked with every single dish we tried. Fish? Check. Vegetables? Check. Beef? Check. Spicy food? Check. Subtle flavors? Check. No matter what we ate Txakoli seemed to be a great partner.
Why? First, the wine has a nice acidity to it. So creamy or fatty foods are the perfect foil to its more astringent feel on the palate. Second, its tart apple and citrus character work perfectly with lighter dishes, so as not to overpower them. Third, there’s a nice minerality that accents shellfish spectacularly. But I suspect the real secret is the bubbles. Txakoli has a very very subtle but noticeable effervescence to it. These aren’t anything like Champagne bubbles. It’s a lot more subtle than that. The Italians call it Frizzante. You could almost miss it if you weren’t looking for it, and those tiny little bubbles just seem to work with anything, as soon as it hits the palate it’s refreshing and reinvigorating, inviting the next bite. It’s made primarily from local Spanish grapes Hondarrabi Zuri and Hondarrabi Beltza, but can alos feature a few others, depending on the producer.
So of course Txakoli works with a baked potato. It soars alongside the bacon, jumps right in with butter and sour cream, and livens up the subtle flavors of the baked potato too! And its lighter alcohol makes it a great weeknight choice.
The Txakoli we’re recommending is by Uriondo. It’s their Bizkaiko Txakolina, and it’s become a regular at our house. When we don’t know what to drink with a meal, we pull out the Txakoli, and it hasn’t failed yet. The 22 vintage is sold out, but here’s another Txakoli we’ve enjoyed. We tried at least 10 in San Sebastian and were never disappointed. You won’t be, either.