2023 Valenciso Rioja Blanco, Rioja

Light meringue on the nose with hints of marzipan, wet stones, fine lees and white fruit. Fresh and effortless on the mid-weighted palate, showing nice fluidity, good freshness and balance. Lightly minerally and creamy in the finish. Viura and garnacha blanca. Drink now or hold.

92 points jamessuckling.com

New. White Rioja is (back) on a roll and today is responsible for a sizeable proportion of Spain’s finest white wines. Valenciso was one of the first of Rioja’s modern classicists to recognise the vast potential of the region’s patrimony of old-vine Viura and Garnacha Blanca planted in the stony soils of the Rioja Alta. This super-classy white from 100-plus-year-old vines of Viura (70%) and Garnacha Blanca (30%) was grown on four small pockets of ancient, low-yielding highland vineyards around Rodezno, Haro and Villalba, all within a short drive from Valenciso’s cellar in Ollauri. 

Fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged on lees in steam-bent, untoasted oak barrels, it’s an engagingly silky white redolent of stone fruits, crushed citrus, chalky saline elements and a silky, fleshy and vibrant palate. Luis Valentín believes this wine performs best in the trickier, cooler years, and 2023 has obliged. Look out for the creamy mouthfeel shot through by invigorating balancing acidity and a lengthy finish tinged with salty minerality and scented chamomile blossom. A shout out to Luis Valentín’s friend, the late Denis Dubourdieu (nicknamed the ‘Pope of white wine’ in Bordeaux), who played a key role in redefining a white which stands out as one of the purest, most vineyard-driven white Riojas on the market.