Alonso & Pedrajo Nauda Viura 2022

Alonso & Pedrajo is a small Rioja producer working under sustainable farming, and Nauda is its Viura raised in clay. Viura, known as Macabeo elsewhere in Spain, is the region's main white grape and gives fresh citrus fruit and gentle floral aromatics when picked early and handled cleanly. This wine spends six months in clay amphorae rather than oak barrels. The porous clay allows a slow, steady exchange of oxygen with the wine, which softens the texture and adds a faint savoury, earthy character, but because the vessel is neutral it imparts no wood flavour and leaves the fruit clear and precise. Ageing on the fine lees inside the amphora adds a little weight to the mid-palate. The colour is pale lemon. The nose is fresh and direct, with lemon, green apple and pear alongside white flowers and a chalky note. The palate is dry and mineral, the clay-softened texture framed by bright acidity and a saline, stony finish. Serve chilled at 9 to 11 degrees.