Iceland Ambassador Alba Hough on Rioja fetishes, natural wines, and punishing monopolies

By Rachel Fellows

Published 08-October-2025

News / Iceland

As Star Wine List’s Iceland Ambassador adds four Red Stars to our guide, we ask her what’s hot – and what’s not – on the country’s wine scene.

Sommelier Alba Hough has reported for Star Wine List from her home in Reykjavik since 2023. Alongside these duties, she is also Master Distiller for Himbrimi Gin, foreman of the Distillers’ Association of Iceland and President of the Icelandic Sommelier Association.

As such, Alba says that she is “never bored” and yet, even though she admits to being “up to my eyeballs in production” at the distillery right now, she is also studying with the Chartered Institute of Brewers and Distillers. In the new year, she will navigate a “large competition year” for the Sommelier Association (it’s not only the world championships, but Iceland will be hosting the Best Sommelier of the Nordics 2026), making this rather a busy time. She calls it “a luxury problem” to have.

Her ambassadorial role for Star Wine List has, Alba says, provided “just one more way to connect with people” and, indeed, acts as “an incentive to keep my finger on the pulse when it comes to wine consumption and the trends in our local market.”

Those trends don’t tend to alter hugely in terms of wine styles, apart from a “dramatic increase in natural wines” over the past couple of years. Otherwise, “consistently, it’s the usual suspects: there’s a lot of France, there’s a lot of Italy, a lot of Spain that rotates around in our market.”

In the capital, Reykjavik (the country’s “main wine hub”), she says there’s “a lot of Burgundy running around here – people are just mad for Pinot Noir, and rightfully so.” And Italy, too: “so Piemonte, Toscana, you know the Sangioveses, the Nebbiolos – they will always have their staples. And you will hardly find a lover of wine in Iceland that doesn’t have some sort of fetish for Ribeira and Rioja. It’s all fairly classical at the moment.”

Her main aggravations in hospitality centre on tone deaf pairings (should they ever occur) and the alcohol monopoly, which can mean that “larger distributors will swallow up entire restaurants with contracts. You can see it in many, many places, that restaurants and bars are practically owned by one distributor and you have them writing the menu. There’s no independent thought put behind it – that irritates me quite a bit.”

The monopoly also keeps Iceland’s wine prices inflated – something that visitors should be prepared for.

“Whether we like it or not, people should be aware that it is expensive. Iceland is not cheap, and our alcohol tax is fairly punishing. So prices will soar depending on the wine. And actually, because of our alcohol tax, the higher the alcohol content, the higher the price. So be aware of that – there’s a correlation between these two things.”

Otherwise, Alba recommends that people spend a couple of days or so in Reykjavik and then explore further afield: “there’s so much to see, so much to do,” she says, “that it would be a shame to come to Iceland and only stay in Reykjavik.”

Our wine guide to Iceland can help with that!

What are you looking for in a Red Star venue?

“We’re such a small community, we’re such a small city, and our restaurant industry fluctuates quite a lot. So there’s a lot of opening and closing of restaurants here. And so what I look for primarily in a Red Star is, first and foremost, would I choose to pay money to sit and consume there? Is the ambience something that is both approachable but also adequate? Adequate in service, adequate in standards. And, of course, the products have to be more than just the entry-level commercial things that you can find in the monopolies.”

What makes a good wine list?

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, obviously, but for me personally, it is continuity – so that it makes thematic sense. We have a lot of cases where restaurants will have a wide variety of wines, but it feels a bit disjointed – two wines from this country and then 24 wines from another, but there’s no connection to the meal, to the menu, and it’s lacking some sort of structural integrity. That’s a bit of a problem.

“But when you have someone who writes and understands their clientele, and tells a story behind the wines – that’s when people have put some proper work into it.”

How can a restaurant or wine bar impress you?

“I think in our industry we’re at the point where we should be able to take it for granted that the food is good – that’s the entire purpose of it. But what really impresses me is when all members of staff are equally aware of all products. So whether it’s food or wine, when the sommeliers or the waiters are equally aware and knowledgeable about what the bar is doing, what the mixologist is doing behind the bar, as well as the bartender or mixologist being fully aware of what the menu contains, that you can switch interchangeably between positions, and people actually work together and show a level of ambition and skill where it’s not necessary to fix a person in one spot.”

Take a look at our guide to the best wine spots in Iceland.