Horizonte de Exopto Blanco 2017

Frenchman Tom Puyaubert makes this outstanding white wine from co-fermented Viura, Garnacha Blanc, Malvasía, Jaen, Moscatel and Torrontés, using a combination of larger, older wood and concrete eggs. Leesy, textured and subtly wooded with a hint of skin tannin and an exotic undertone. 2019-23

The white has the same name as the entry-level red, and I tasted the 2017 Horizonte de Exopto Blanco. For the white, they have added the grapes from one more plot in the village of Ábalos that's planted exclusively with white grapes (the rest are planted with a majority of red and only individual white vines), and production has grown to 6,000 bottles. Produced in a slightly oxidative way, it's mostly Viura and 10% each Garnacha Blanca and Malvasía Riojana, fermented together in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts and finished in barriques. The élevage was in used 225-liter barrels (60% of the volume), concrete eggs (25% and used for the first time) and French oak demi-muids (the remaining 15%) and lasted 12 months. The new thing is the addition of the concrete egg, which seems to have added freshness, tension and aromatic complexity. In fact, the wine makes me think of a cool vintage (and it was not), and the wine is fresh and has great acidity. It's a livelier white, this time without malolactic and from grapes harvested earlier, not only because of the fast ripening but also to get additional freshness. A clear step up. 6,000 bottles were filled in September 2018.