Rioja Blanco - Malvasía (22)

Malvazia | single vineyard wijn van oude stokken | kalk terroir bij San Vincente | whole buch press | vergist en gerijpt op eikenhout voor vijf maanden | rijp en krachtig | intens citrus fruit | wilde kruiden | toast | romig | aromatsisch, rond en smeuïg | redelijk intens, kan prachtig rijpen! 

Abel & Maite Mendoza

Echte pioniers in het Rioja-gebied zijn Abel en Maite. Al 25 jaar verbouwen zij biodynamische druiven in verschillende delen van Rioja, verspreid over 22 kleine percelen. Ze hebben ervoor gekozen om al deze percelen apart te vergisten om zo een soort Bourgogne-systeem te introduceren — iets wat in de praktijk behoorlijk uitdagend blijkt.
In de kelder wordt traditioneel gewerkt, wat wijnen oplevert die steevast hoge scores krijgen. Niet voor niets behoren ze tot de vijftien beste producenten van de regio!

Review

The 2021 Malvasía is the first white I tasted from the collection of 2021 whites, a wine that showcases what's to come from the rest of the 2021 whites: freshness, precision, clarity and symmetry, elegance and subtleness. The wines are extremely young and tender, and all are produced in the same way—fermented in barrel, where it matured with the lees and bâtonnage for some five months. They have not changed much, but they are fine-tuning the barrels and coopers they use and have started using some 500-liter barrels, not only 225-liter ones like in the past. The Malvasía is the lowest in alcohol, 13%, and has incredible freshness, a pH of3.17 and almost six grams of acidity—unheard of parameters for the variety. The wine is delicate and ethereal like never before. 3,858 bottles were filled in April 2022. 94/100 Luis Gutiérrez

Abel Mendoza has very high hopes for the wines from 2021. He told me he hasn't seen a vintage like it for a long time—healthy grapes and a lack of issues, some hail in one plot, harvest from the end of September. He then said it's the best vintage since 2010, but better than 2010, with more freshness and acidity. The whites could very well be the finest collection to date. Most of the reds were from 2018, a challenging and cool vintage that produced lows and highs, but some very high highs... The 2018 collection is also the finest group of reds I have seen here. On average, he produces 80,000 bottles. The finest 80,000 bottles they have produced so far...