Rioja Blanco - Garnacha Blanca (23)

Garnacha Blanca | single vineyard wijn van oude stokken | kalk terroir bij San Vincente | whole buch press | vergist en gerijpt op eikenhout voor vijf maanden | rijp | wollig | floraal | etherisch | rijpe citrus | goede frisheid

Abel & Maite Mendoza

Een stel echt pioniers in het Rioja gebied, zijn Abel en Maite. Al 25 jaar verbouwen zij biodynamische druiven in verschillende regio’s van de Rioja, op 22 verschillende percelen. Zij hebben ervoor gekozen om alle kleine percelen apart te laten vergisten om zo een soort ‘Bourgogne systeem’ te introduceren, alleen is dit vrij lastig gebleken. In de kelder wordt er traditioneel gewerkt en levert wijnen op die altijd hoge scores krijgen. Het is niet voor niets dat ze altijd bij de 15 beste producenten van de regio zitten!

Review

The white Garnacha tends to deliver in warm and dry years, as is the case with the 2019 Garnacha Blanca, which feels expressive and varietal with the textbook notes of waxy apples and a creamy and Mediterranean touch of aromatic herbs that make it very attractive. It has deep flavors revealing full development of the grapes, and it's round and lush. It has low alcohol, like the Torrontés, and more freshness and acidity than any of the other white varieties. The wine fermented and matured in cask for five months. I love it. 1,054 bottles were filled in March 2020. 94/100 Luis Gutiérrez

I don't think there are many producers in Rioja that make six different white wines, and it's a shame it's not seven, because the seventh should be a varietal Maturana Blanca, the varietal that I think has more potential among the "new" varieties. But Mendoza doesn't have any Maturana Blanca and therefore he cannot make such a wine... These whites are sold very early, and I suspect most are also drunk early, which is a shame, because when young, the wines are shy and difficult to read (tasting them reminds me of tasting chez Roulot in Burgundy), and one seldom finds older vintages in restaurants or shops. The whites I tasted were all from 2019, a vintage they say was very dry with some spring frosts, a year of low yields and drought. The reds were mostly from 2017, a very challenging vintage, of which you've probably heard a lot by now, but in the words of Abel Mendoza, it was "marked by the largest frost ever known in our area at the end of April. Together with the occasional hailstorm during the summer and the drought of the year in general, it caused a significant reduction in yields and at the same time an earlier harvest. The earliest we have had so far," Mendoza is, of course, the ultimate Riojan vigneron who works his 21 hectares of vineyards, mostly in his village San Vicente de la Sonsierra and in the neighboring Ábalos and Labastida, and makes the wines at home with his wife Maite, a total of 70,000 bottles.