Exopto El Bernate de Exopto Rioja Blanco 2022

This exceptional, rocky white Rioja goes from strength to strength. Today the blend comprises 85% Viura with 10% Malvasía Riojana and 5% Garnacha Blanca. The grapes are drawn mostly from the cool, high country of Ábalos, including the old-vine vineyards of San Cristobel (650 metres) and Perquita, planted in 1965. From 2022, the wine now benefits from a portion of 75-year-old Viura from Baños de Ebro. Fermented wild in concrete, the wine was then raised in a mixture of eggs, old barrels and 4,000-litre foudre as Puyaubert seeks to harness the mineral salinity and tension gifted by the rocky limestone soils and old vines in his highland vineyards. As always, it’s a shining example of new-wave Rioja Blanco.