Winemaker Notes
Reto is made from the Albillo grape from cool-sited vineyards. This blanco is very elegant and refined with green apple, stone fruits, green tea, chamomile, spices, and limestone minerality.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This white is produced with the Albilla grape, a unique variety found almost exclusively in the village of Villamalea, and the 2017 Reto comes from seven different plots fermented separately with indigenous yeasts in 600-liter oak barrels and 1,500-liter oak foudres, where the wine matured with the lees for seven months. 2017 was a very early harvest, and the wine has a cool-climate, austere personality, based on stony minerality and acidity. This was picked the 5th of August, extremely early and with 13% alcohol. This is a mineral white in the style of a Bairrada from Quinta das Bagéiras, a Sancerre from Vatan or Agua de Roca from Matías Michelini. Liquid rocks! This has to be the finest vintage of this incredible white. It's vibrant and has the coolness and strict texture of the granite soils.
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James Suckling
Pared-back bruised apple, lemon and straw aromas with a gently spicy edge, too. The palate has a very impressive array of light honey, nougat and white almond. Bright, sweet and spicy finish.
There are hundreds of white grape varieties grown throughout the world. Some are indigenous specialties capable of producing excellent single varietal wines. Each has its own distinct viticultural characteristics, as well as aroma and flavor profiles.
The Moors gave it the name, ‘Manxa,’ which fittingly means ‘parched earth.’ La Mancha, the largest Spanish wine producing region in all of Spain, is one of its hottest and driest. Sturdy and drought-resistant white varieietes like Airen, Viura and Verdejo thrive in this environment.
EDWSP480_17_2017 Item# 777889