Rich, Aromatic whites

Descriptor: toasty, round, baking spice-scented, honeyed and bright, with baked apple fruit and/or lemon curd fruit aromas and very often a lengthy nutty finish.

Basic factors influencing this style:

• Varietals: Chardonnay, Garnacha Blanca, Malvasia, Viura
• Terroir: warmer climate areas in sub-zones such as Ribera Alta and Ribera Baja; loam-clay, alluvial, limestone, marl
• Winemaking: wine is fermented in oak barrels, and remain in contact with the lees resulting in a fuller mouth-feel, ripe fruit and complex aromas.

Goes well with cold-water fish such as sea bass, salmon as well as pork and chicken.

 

Barrel-fermented Chardonnay—typically aged on its lees in new or lightly-seasoned French oak for several months, in the Burgundian style—has become the calling card of modern Spanish white winemaking in many regions, much to the chagrin of native-varietal traditionalists. Yet even the staunchest purists among them tend to acknowledge that somehow—the climate? the soils?—Navarra gets it right; the region’s best examples of this style tend to be regarded as the best in Spain. Also included in this category are the occasional single-varietal Malvasia or Garnacha Blanca bottlings, as well as very rare, very fine oak-aged Viura.