Bodegas Exopto Horizonte de Exopto Blanco, Rioja, Spain

艾歐普托酒莊地平線白葡萄酒

點(diǎn)擊次數(shù)：719

The 2020 Horizonte de Exopto Blanco is mostly from ábalos but now also has the grapes from new plots he purchased in Ba?os de Ebro, 75-year-old Viura, so the volume grew to 7,000 bottles. He went for a more oxidative vinification, trying to gain in texture, and the final blend of 80% Viura and 10% each Malvasía Riojana and Garnacha Blanca only reached 13% alcohol in this "tropical" vintage of heat and rain. It has a clean nose of white fruit and flowers and a touch of pollen and dried flowers, chamomile and verbena. It's serious and dry, with some austerity in the palate. All of the grapes fermented together with indigenous yeasts, starting in stainless steel and finishing in French barriques (20%), concrete eggs (20%) and oak foudre (40%), the novelty since the previous year, the use of a 4,000-liter oak foudre that delivered moderate oxidation. It was bottled in September 2021.

The 2019 Horizonte de Exopto Blanco, the village white from ábalos, has an elegant and captivating nose, complex, elegant and nuanced. It's a blend of 80% Viura, 10% Garnacha Blanca and 10% Malvasía Riojana co-fermented in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts and matured for one year in used 225-liter barrels (20% of the volume), concrete eggs (20%) and the majority in a 4,000-liter French oak foudre, the novelty this vintage, where the fermentations finished. The palate is beautifully textured and fresh, with only 12.5% alcohol and very good acidity, clean, precise and very tasty, with a salty finish. 8,000 bottles were filled in September 2020. Unfortunately, I never tasted the 2018...

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.

The one white (so far) is the 2015 Horizonte de Exopto Blanco, produced with grapes from the scattered white vines intermixed with the reds in the old vineyards they work in ábalos (12 different plots), usually in the poorer soils to balance yields. It's produced in a slightly oxidative way with a majority of Viura, 10% Garnacha Blanca and 5% Malvasía Riojana along with some other white varieties, all fermented together. Fermentation started in stainless steel without added yeasts and finished in barriques with an élevage of 12 months in contact with the lees, which were stirred during the first six months in barrel. There are some citrus and caramel aromas with good ripeness, and in a warmer and more Mediterranean vintage like 2015, it goes through malolactic, so the style of cooler years (2013, 2014, 2016) and warmer years is different. Here, there is more volume and more texture, but to keep the austerity of the soils, they look for freshness and harvest early, so the style of long and linear wines is always there. These whites welcome some time in bottle. 3,000 bottles were filled in September 2016.

The one white here, the 2014 Horizonte de Exopto is a classica Rioja blend of Viura with some 10% Garnacha Blanca and 5% Malvasía Riojana picked from the old vineyards in ábalos, where the red and white grape varieties are planted together--as they do not have any white grape vineyards. The white grapes where usually planted in the poorer soils to compensate yields, as whites tends to produce more than reds; however, they avoid the Calagra?o, which they consider a grape that is too neutral. Volumes are therefore quite low; they produce around 3,000 bottles of this oak-aged white with the intention to create something with aging potential. The grapes fermented together and the end of the fermentation was in barrique, where the wine matured for one year. They talk about a cool vintage; the wine was bottled at 12.5% alcohol, with a pH of 3.33 and seven grams of acidity (tartaric). 2014 is somehow similar to 2013, perhaps a year with more ups and downs. The wine didn't go through malolactic (which is not blocked nor pushed) and it has good aromatic intensity, plenty of aromas of herbal tea and dry flowers, in that slightly oxidative style of the old oak-aged whites from Rioja. There is good freshness, a very balanced palate with clean, focused flavors. I think this should age nicely. This is a wine that was first produced in 2008.