Quinta da Muradella Monterrei Blanca 2009

AUSTRALIA WIDE SHIPPING INCLUDED

Each vintage Mateo choses his most impressive barrel to bottle as a single-site mono varietal-a kind of Monterrei tte de cuve. From 2009, a barrel of Doa Blanca got the nod. The fruit comes from a single mountain vineyard planted in the Tamaguelos district where the yields are extraordinarily low. Hand-harvested into two parcels, half the batch was left in whole-bunches and half destemmed and each subject to 48 hours of pre-ferment skin contact in stainless steel tanks. Once the fermentation was underway the wines were transferred into three-year-old, 500-litre barrels to finish the fermentation.

After eight months in barrel the wine was decanted into stainless steel tanks where it stayed for four months before it was bottled without filtration.

The result is a startlingly fleshy and yet somehow graceful white with a Goliath-sized mass of texture shot through by ripe citrus raciness and a searing mineral freshness. Similarly weighted to a top dry Alsace Riesling and with the texture of a fine Chteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc, this has a salty-sweet, saturating presence on the palate with dried peach, apricot, anise, nuts, and citrus pith aromas and flavours as well as a fine, ripe acidity to balance. An incredible, completely original, savoury yet sumptuous wine that comes into its own with food.