Vino Blanco Atalaya Corta y Raspa 2017 11%, JM Harana Yuste

Appearance

Bright clean strawy gold with golden highlights.

Nose

Fresh, clean and attractive with distinct floral and herbal notes like dry scrubland with camomile and white flowers along with softly tangy fruity notes of apple, quince and yellow plum, even a suspicion of almond. There are very faint flor and mineral traces, but overall the impression is fruity and floral.

Palate

Very tasty with genuine character and lots of tangy zesty white fruits, clean, fresh and lively yet there is the faintest oxidative note adding complexity with a very gentle dry chalky texture from the albariza and a faint salinity at the very long finish.

Comments

Made by José Manuel Harana Yuste, a 5th generation grower and one of the three mayetos (growers) of the Mayetería Sanluqueña who make wine from their grapes rather than sell them for very little profit. It is 100% Palomino from a parcel in the pago Atalaya which is well exposed to the estuary and Atlantic near Sanlúcar. The wine is fermented in an ex Manzanilla butt and briefly aged in it with very little if any flor before bottling. The Corta y Raspa wines are intended to show the different vineyard characteristics, being all made the same way, and they certainly do.

Price

11 euros, Licores Corredera

Corta y Raspa Viña Atalaya 2016 11%, José Manuel Harana

Appearance

Bright pale gold with golden highlights.

Nose

Fresh,clean and natural with notes of very young Manzanilla, very mineral with hints of fresh herbs and wild plants and a maritime note. There are faint notes of apple and even flor, so the wine leans slightly more towards Manzanilla than fruity table wine. Classic Sanlúcar vino blanco.

Palate

Light young and fresh with good acidity, almost crunchy, the fruit is balanced out by a faint flor bitterness and saline minerality which gives it a lovely tension. There is a chalky texture and while it seems a little lean at first it soon fills out and leaves a super clean dry finish. It is barely a year old and more time in bottle will bring it out further and enhance the vineyard character.

Comments

José Manuel Harana Yuste is a 5th generation grower and one of the three mayetos involved in the Mayetería Sanluqueña project which was the brainchild of oenologist Ramiro Ibáñez to make the vineyards more profitable by selling a finished product rather than just grapes. José Manuel's grapes come from his Viña Atalaya vineyard in the Pago Atalaya where the soil is the lentejuela type of albariza. All the Mayetería Sanluqueña wines have been made in exactly the same way, fermented in butt, to let the vineyard speak for itself, all the wines are different and all are good, showing just how important and how interesting vineyards are. Production for 2016 was just 700 bottles, but that could increase when he sees how well received the wines have deservedly been. Bottled by MC3 in El Puerto de Santa María.

Price

9.95 euros, De Albariza