Señorio de Librares Blanco Rioja DOC 2024

Clara and Patricia Espinosa are offering a refreshingly restorative reframing of Rioja, repairing the region’s prevailing reputation of “old barrels and old palates.” The sisters joined the family business in 2019, bringing with them a healthy dose of skepticism towards the trends inspired by industrialization that have dominated the region for the last century or so. So they hit the reset button. They decided to transform and modernize their family’s holdings - 50 hectares of organic conversion grapes - and finally bottle wine under their own estate name after historically selling bulk wine and grapes to other wineries. The girls’ commitment to organic viticulture is in line with the family’s history of following the lunar calendar (the name Librares references the harvest moon). Sometimes we do go backwards to move forwards.The elder sister, Patricia, who works in fashion and design in London, is tasked with selling wine and developing the business, while Clara works with their father, Felipe, to craft wines of clarity and focus inspired by Austrian whites and the works of Can Sumoi in Catalonia. Clara’s work in the hand-poured concrete winery built by their grandfather in the 1980s is modern in its aspirations but grounded in traditional technique. This blanco is composed solely of viura hailing from a vineyard site sitting at 600m of elevation, the highest and coolest vineyard of the farm. The grapes are harvested early in the season and macerated for 24-hours on their skins before pressing. All fermentations occur spontaneously in concrete tanks, allowing for subtle oxygenation to aid in the development of structure and length. Lightly filtered, there is a touch of SO2 at bottling. Expect layers of subtle complexity and joyful energy - it’s creamy and nutty, tropical, and bright; like a greek yogurt cup swirled with lemon curd and topped with coconut flakes. The finish is soft and pillowy, giving yellow Peeps and Easter morning. Rioja has risen! Organically grown, low-intervention/natural wine.