93 John Gilman - View from the Cellar

The 2021 Rioja Blanco from Alegre y Valgañón is composed from a cépages of ninety percent Viura and ten percent Garnacha Blanco. The wine shows beautiful aromatic precision in its constellation of lemon, tart pear, salty white soil tones, raw almond, spring flowers and vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and nascently complex, with a lovely core of fruit, excellent mineral undertow and grip, zesty acids and a long, seamlessly balanced and vibrant finish. This is a lovely wine in the making, which is approachable today, but still fairly primary and will show decidedly more complexity with a bit of bottle age. 2023-2045. 93.