Albarino with arroz negro (rice with squid ink)

If you’re an albarino fan I’m sure you know it pairs brilliantly with seafood but here’s a twist to take the experience to another level.

It was at the brilliant Barrafina in Adelaide Street in London last Monday where Mar de Frades hosted a fascinating tasting and lunch to show off their experiments with older vintages.

Up until that point I’d been less keen on their top wine Finca Valiñas, a richer style which is given skin contact and partly aged in wood (I like the purity of unoaked albarino) but I have to say it was a fantastic match with this rich dish of dark, deeply savoury squid-ink flavoured rice with clams, prawns and squid*.

On the basis of this I’d say keep your young, fresh albarino for uncooked shellfish, seafood salads and simple grilled fish and more complex styles for richer fish and rice dishes like this. (Paella too, of course.)

The Finca Valiñas doesn't seem to be currently available in the UK but enquire about it from importers Sommelier's Choice. They have the 2014 Mar de Frades albarino for £12 for 50cl or £16 for a full-size bottle. Amazon also stocks it for £16.53 + £4.95 delivery.

* Also called arròs negre

I attended the tasting and lunch at Barrafina as a guest of Mar de Frades.

Clams with rice and Verd Albera

What do you drink with tapas? My immediate go-to is sherry but having indulged that whim the other day in the form of a glass of tangy manzanilla amontillada from Lustau’s almacenista collection I unusually followed it up with a glass of white.

We were in one of my favourite tapas bars José in Bermondsey Street - named after its engaging proprietor José Pizarro. After working our way through the usual suspects (pan con tomate, jamon, croquetas* and patatas bravas) we had a couple of seafood dishes - garlicky prawns and clams with rice - that went brilliantly with a glass of 2012 Verd Albera, a blend of grenache blanc and muscat from Spain’s Costa Brava.

Despite the significant amount of muscat (30% I later discovered from importers Indigo Wine) it wasn’t overly perfumed but fresh, crisp and slightly smokey - a deliciously unusual fish-friendly white at a very good price.

*their croquetas are to die for. Some of the best I’ve tasted in or outside Spain.