El Bernate de Exopto 2020

The 2020 El Bernate is the third vintage of a single-vineyard white from a 0.5-hectare 85-year-old plot of Malvasía Riojana (Alarije) but maybe some others too in San Vicente de la Sonsierra. The wine is austere and fresh and has gained in depth and nuance. It's 13% alcohol and has a pH of 3.33 and 6.3 grams of acidity, very good parameters. It's light to medium-bodied and finishes dry and very clean with a chalky sensation. It fermented with indigenous yeasts in 950-liter concrete egg, where it matured for one year. 1,200 bottles were filled in September 2021.

Frenchman Tom Puyaubert's top white is a comparatively rare bottling of a pure Malvasía from an east-facing, 80-year-old vineyard at 450 metres in San Vicente. No wood and no skin contact is the rule here on this concrete egg fermented number, which has aromas of hawthorn and jasmine, some tannic grip and pear and stone fruit flavours. 2023-28