Jardín de las Iguales Macabeo 2017

The top white, the same as the top red, comes from a magnificent vineyard planed in the 1890s. The 2017 El Jardín de las Iguales Macabeo is the second vintage for this wine, from a year that was dry and warm and resulted in an early harvest. The vines are quite tall, as they have been pruned like that, and normally have three arms; they are planted on a northwest-facing slope rich in slate at around 700 meters in altitude and give very low yields, which means concentration and freshness. It fermented in a 1,100-liter oak foudre with indigenous yeasts, where it was kept with lees and later transferred to used 500-liter oak barrels. It has a very Burgundian nose, somehow closer to the 2018 La Loma & Los Santos (a blend of Garnacha Blanca and Macabeo) than the 2018 vintage of El Jardín de las Iguales Macabeo. There are lots of flowers and pollen, spices and a touch of smoke. The palate is seamless, compact, with power and length, still a little marked by the élevage. It should improve with some more time in bottle. Only 631 bottles were filled in February 2019.