Campo Viejo, Viura-Tempranillo Blanco Rioja 2015
Rioja, Spain, Dry Rosé, DIAM cork, 12.0% abv
This is only the second Tempranillo Blanco I have tasted (in this case blended with traditional Spanish variety, Viura). You may well be familiar with Tempranillo, the great red wine grape that makes red Rioja and a host of other wines in Spain. It is possible to make a white wine like this from red wine grapes - the colour of red wine grapes is all in the skins, as their juice is transparent, so if you ferment only the juice without including the skins, you can make a white wine from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or any red wine grapes. That's called a 'blanc de noirs', or 'white from black'.
But this wine is not a blanc de noirs, because Tempranillo Blanco is a recently discovered white mutation of the red Tempranillo variety that has now been propagated to commercial qualities. It shares 97% of its DNA with its red sibling. Campo Viejo's rendition offers summery, fresh, crisp apple and pear aromas with a twist of lemon, before a palate filled with gentle citrus and modest acid structure, but enough to give it fresh, if fruity and simple, appeal. It's hardly the most profound of white Riojas, but it's fun to introduce this brand new and unusual variety.
£8.00 Ocado, Sainsbury's, Tesco.
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