Bodegas Exopto Rioja Horizonte de Exopto Blanco 2021

Horizonte de Exopto Blanco is a white Rioja built on old-vine Viura from the high, rocky country around Abalos.

Rioja's whites have been rewritten over the past two decades by growers working with old Viura in the cool highlands of the Sonsierra, and Exopto sits squarely in that camp. Tom Puyaubert came from Bordeaux and set up in Rioja in 2003, farming and working with a scatter of old plots along the foot of the Sierra Cantabria. Horizonte Blanco is roughly 80% Viura with about 10% each of Malvasia Riojana and Garnacha Blanca, drawn mostly from Abalos, including the old vines of San Cristobel at 650 metres and Perquita, planted in 1965; from 2021 a parcel of 75-year-old Viura at Banos de Ebro joined the blend. The fruit ferments with wild yeasts in concrete and is then raised across concrete eggs, old barrels and 4,000-litre foudre, a deliberately neutral regime meant to hold on to the saline tension the limestone soils and old vines provide.

It drinks well now and will hold for several years in bottle. Serve at 10-12°C with grilled prawns, roast chicken or a hard sheep's-milk cheese.

*Every effort is made to ensure the current vintage is accurate; however, variations can occur. If you are after a specific vintage, please contact us prior to ordering.