99 – Blanco Salvaje 2018

blanco Salvaje 2018

White with super low sulfites aged for two years in barrels. 340 bottles

The grapes for this wine come from vineyards in Zazuar, at 950m altitude, about 150 years old, planted on ungrafted ungrafted vines, with a mixture of varieties: albillo, viura, pirules, malvasia. From a terroir that left us crazy when we discovered it, very very white, sandy loam soil, with sand under lime. It has the structure and concentration of the sand, which is the best for whites, and the minerality and earthiness of the lime. For us, it is the best vineyard we can find in Ribera for whites.

We harvest the vines, go through a selection table, ferment separately in stainless steel and when the fermentation is finished, the wine is transferred to the barrel for a very long malolactic fermentation, almost a year, without sulfur. In total two years in only two new Hungarian oak barrels, with very little sulfites and only one racking.

The profile is very particular, with a full range of mineral and earthy sensations. It is like an island wine, like Tenerife, with a volcanic character, but made in Ribera del Duero.

The sommeliers love it, because it is super pleasant in the mouth but with a brutal minerality and concentration. Probably the best white we have made, or thereabouts.

When fermentation finished, the wine was so mineral and closed that we did not know what to do with it, so we decided to leave it in barrel, to see what would happen. The result is that the minerality, concentration and phosphorus have become a total complexity, the tones of fruit, mixed with earthiness, and phosphorus, are truly amazing.

It is a Ribera del Duero reserve.