2020 Blanco Vinas Viejas Albillo
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Made from century-old, certified-organic vines, the 2020 Albillo Vinas Viejas Vino de Guarda requires a lot of precision, says winemaker Jorge Monzon Pascual, for the variety can be somewhat neutral on its own. Finding that it becomes more interesting when grown in limestone, he sources from estate vineyards around La Aguilera. The wine has a nutty, youthful character and is medium-bodied, with firm tannin, whole-cluster pressed into neutral French oak to enjoy a slow fermentation process with native yeasts before aging another 35 months in French oak. The finish is chalky and textural and impressive all around. Drink through 2032.
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Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate
Joaquin Hidalgo, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The white 2020 Albillo Viñas Viejas also had a very slow fermentation because it's quite rich, and it feels more generous and rounder than the 2019 I tasted next to it. It has a more approachable nose that is less reductive and flinty, more civilized. It was a cool year, and the wine has amazing parameters—13% alcohol and a pH of 3.02 and no sugar—coming though as bone dry and chalky. It matured in French oak barrels for 35 months. 3,926 bottles and 67 magnums produced. It was bottled in September 2023.
The 2020 Dominio del Águila Blanco is Albillo Mayor from La Aguilera, Ribera del Duero. It was aged 35 months in French oak barrels, mostly in underground caves. Tightly wound, it offers notes of phosphorus, green apple, hop, fennel, herbs and fine pastry-like oak. The palate is compact and chalky, with taut, acid-driven structure. Green apple, lime and lemon linger on the finish. Intensely expressive and delicious—a benchmark white for Ribera del Duero.