Alegre y Valganon 'Las Llanas' Viura Blanco 2019

They are using some skin contact in all of their whites because of this wine, but here they have reduced it and have removed it from the label. I'm talking about the serious 2019 Las Llanas, a white from a plot they have worked for the last five years. In 2019, the wine only had a limited skin contact in the press, and the "orange" character is very limited, looking more for the sapid limestone expression from the soils. It has a showy nose with notes of quince and spice (clove), pollen and chamomile with something balsamic. It's mostly Viura and some Malvasía Riojana, Calagraño and Garnacha Blanca from a small very old plot on sandstone. It has 13.6% alcohol and a pH of 3.4 and is medium-bodied with very good freshness and a dry, chalky finish. It matured in a 500-liter barrel for one year and settled in a clayver until bottling. 650 bottles were filled in September 2021. LUIS GUTIERREZ, The Wine Advocate

This special single vineyard wine replicates a historical style called Tercera Año … a wine bottled in its 3rd year of maturation. Las Llanas is a very special old parcel Eva purchased and rescued from utter neglect. It’s in their home town, Sajazarra, more or less across the road from their little bodega. First release is from the 2018 harvest.

The vineyard is a field blend of Viura, Rojal, Calagraño and Garnacha Blanca (to quote Oscar: “contains all the white grapes allowed and more”) grown in very poor sandstone. There’s not enough fruit to put through a vertical press, so the wine ferments with skins but without stems and is pressed after 4 weeks of fermentation and maceration. One 400 litre barrel was filled and the wine aged here a while before resting in Clayber ceramic (24 months in total), and bottled unfiltered and unfined. Please decant. 530 bottles made