Viura is the main white
grape variety used in La Rioja. It is a variety which generates relatively
little fruit flavour but high acid content, in wines that take oak aging well;
hence the classic dry, oaky style that is nowadays associated only with a
handful of the older, very traditional bodegas. Over the last 15 or so years, a
perception that heavily oaked wines have become unfashionable has driven many
producers to attempt a lighter, less oaky, more fruit-driven style. Yet this is
never a style in which Viura is likely to excel.
As a lover of more traditional
white Rioja, I was delighted when I saw this wine which N1 pulled out of a
bin-end sale; the very gold colour is a cipher for long contact with oak
(without oak aging or barrel fermentation, Viura will give a considerably paler
colour) and this has been barrel-fermented in new American oak.
A rich bouquet of white
flowers, toast and banana; a buttery palate, toasty and acidic, without a lot
of fruit, which starts off seeming slightly hollow on the mid-palate but fills
out with time. Lovely texture, good length.
From a relatively young
bodega, founded in 1996, which I hadn’t come across before. Certainly the best
“new” white Rioja I’ve discovered in ages, traditionally styled, and well made.
Had there been any more in that bin-end sale, I would have bought the lot.
86/100
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