Dominio del Aguila 'Vinas Viejas Reserva' Albillo Mayor Blanco 2020

Àguila Blanco has rapidly become one of the most sought after rare wines of Spain, the first white Ribera and a contender for the greatest Spanish white. It’s cobbled together from a cluster of plots on limestone bedrock, all Albillo Mayor vines of at least 100 years old. It’s whole bunch pressed and fermented reductively in used oak casks, often taking a full year to finish malolactic fermentations in Jorge’s cold underground caves. It mimicks the practices of white vinification Jorge took from DRC but updated to reflect the quirks of Albillo Mayor resulting is something that structurally harks to match-struck, powerful, intensity of top Burgundy; so much so that it is often half-jokingly referred to ‘Spanish Coche-Dury (for example in Noble Rot’s Wine from Another Galaxy.) At the same time weaving its flavour profile from classically Continental Spanish palate. It is quite simply a phenomenal, unique wine but quantities are extremely limited so please get in contact with me as soon as possible if you are interested in securing a few bottles. 

The white 2020 Albillo Viñas Viejas also had a very slow fermentation because it’s quite rich and it feels more generous and rounder than the 2019 I tasted next to it. It has a more approachable nose that is less reductive and flinty, more civilized. It was a cool year, and the wine has amazing parameters - 13% alcohol and a pH of 3.02 and no sugar - coming through as bone dry and chalky. It matured in french oak barrels for 35 months. 96 points, Luis Gutierrez, The Wine Advocate, June 2024.