Bodegas Exopto Rioja El Bernate de Exopto Blanco 2022

This single-vineyard white is one of the most exciting white wines we have tasted from Spain. Period. It comes from a vineyard of the same name, a tiny plot of 80-year-old Malvasía Riojana rooted in the highland limestone soils of San Vicente de la Sonsierra. To preserve what Tom calls “the mineral and citric character that this variety can develop in limestone soils of Rioja Alta”, it spends two weeks on skins and ferments with indigenous yeasts in a 950-litre concrete egg, where it also matured for one year before bottling. 

The altitude of over 500 metres, early harvesting and Tom Puyaubert’s analogue winemaking give this wine a gorgeous, chalky personality to complement the Malvasía’s succulent fruit. On the nose, it is compact and focused with scents of yellow flowers and fennel bulb alongside enticing salinity. Galloping with internal energy, it’s compact and sinewy in texture with a sleek core of crystalised white fruits snapped onto the tense and precise finish. A touch of reduction only adds to the limpid, Burgundian feel. It’s a dazzling expression of a great vineyard.