2018 Capellania Reserva Blanco
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Rioja Alta. 100% Viura. TA 6.1 g/l, RS 1.8 g/l. Generously fruited, this has a pure yet powerful citrusy core, looking utterly youthful for its age. It’s creamy and toasty, with lots of very bright acidity, suggesting potential for promising evolution in the bottle. Really saline and long, it’s also enjoyable now. (FG)
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Jancis Robinson MW
Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate
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To catch up with the current vintages that I shall review every 12 months from now on, I tasted two vintages of some of the wines, including the whites. The 2018 Capellanía is 100% Viura from the plot that names the wine. The vineyard is six hectares planted in 1945 at 485 meters altitude, the highest in the estate. It fermented in concrete, the first vintage to do so, as it was fermented in stainless steel until then, and matured in second-use French oak barrels for 22 months. It spent a further seven months in concrete, a long élevage, with the idea to produce a structured white with aging potential, while keeping the varietal character. The wine is subtle and elegant, following the path of all the wines in the portfolio here, still marked by the élevage in oak, spicy and smoky. The palate is balanced, with a nice combination of fruit and oak, with a soft texture, clean, focused and tasty. It has 14% alcohol, a low pH of 3.1 and 6.10 grams of acidity. 21,836 bottled and 688 magnums produced. It was bottled in July 2022. This is now released with the Gran Reserva back label.