Alegre Valganon 2019 Rioja Blanco DOCa

Alegre Valganon 2019 Rioja Blanco DOCa

Item Number: 15543

UPC: None

Country: Spain
Region: Rioja
Sub Region: Rioja Alta
Appellation/AVA: Rioja DOCa
Estate Grown Wine: Yes
Vintage: 2019
Grape(s): 90% Viura / 10% Garnacha Blanca
Type: Wine - White
Bottle Size: 750 ml
Pack: 12
Closure: Cork
Alc by Vol(%): 13
pH: 3.33
Soil Type: Limestone
Case Production: 530

Winemaking Notes: This is made from 90% Viura and 10% Garnacha grown in the town of Galbarruri, just at the base of the Obarenes Mountains. Traditional/sustainable viticulture is employed, with only organic fertilizers. The intact bunches are pressed slowly with their stems and ferment in stainless steel. Then, the wine ages in used French oak for 11 months (500-liter barrels and 1,000-liter foudres). French wood loses its flavoring ability much faster than American oak, so they’ve been able to minimize the flavor impact of the wood. The wine shows a heady mix of precocious fruit coupled with a muscular mouthfeel and terrific length.

Reviews

  • Vinous
    Rating: 91 (4/22/2021)
    High-pitched citrus and orchard fruit aromas are complicated by building herb, floral and mineral flourishes. Fine-grained and precise on the palate, offering bitter lemon pith, pear skin and quinine flavors that unfurl slowly through the back half. Finishes long and stony, with repeating florality and a lingering suggestion of tarragon.
  • The Wine Advocate
    Rating: 93 (10/30/2020)
    The 2019 Blanco is a blend of Viura and Garnacha Blanca that wants to be fresh but complex, elegant but structured. It's a blend of different vinifications, some with skin contact, some with malolactic, etc. in search of achieving more complexity and showing the limestone soils from a cool place even, in warmer vintages like this 2019. The bottled wine is 13.05% alcohol and has freshness with a pH of 3.3 and close to six grams of tartaric. It's very medicinal, textured and with some tannin, from early-picked grapes to keep the acidity. It's also balsamic, with notes of cloves, dry flowers, chamomile, quince and citrus, so it's certainly not your average young white from Rioja. The palate has a lovely texture, round and lush with great freshness, and it's structured and long. I love it.