Viña Real Barrel Fermented Rioja Blanco 2020
Viña Real Barrel Fermented Rioja Blanco is made from hand-picked Viura grapes. The vines are now 20 years old and are grown in various plots around Rioja Alavesa, mainly from Elciego and Laguardia. Once in the winery, they were held for 12 hours on their skins in order to extract more aromatic compounds and obtain better aromatic profile in the finished wine. Afterwards, a small pneumatic press was used to separate different fractions and qualities of must. The free-run juice is used for making this wine, which is fermented Hungarian oak barrels of differing capacities and ages (between 1 and 3 years old). Once the alcoholic fermentation ended, the wine remained in barrel with its fine lees which were kept in suspension through battonage. Weekly tasting of the wine allowed enabled the team to keep track of its development and decide the best time to end lees contact. At this point, the wine was racked, clarified and filtered before bottling. Bright and clear pale yellow in color. On the nose it presents a good balance between the aromas coming from the variety and those coming from its stay in the barrel such as floral, fruity aromas of apple, pear and ripe banana together with pastry spices and light notes of aromatic herbs. On the palate the fresh fruit is to the fore with balanced silkiness on the mid-palate and a long, fresh finish.
