Casa Balaguer Benimaquía Tinajas 2021

Casa Balaguer, part of Vinessens, makes Benimaquía Tinajas in D.O. Alicante from Moscatel de Alejandría grown in the Mata Natural Park. The vines stand on sandy coastal soils that allowed them to survive the phylloxera outbreak ungrafted, a rare survival that lends the fruit real character, farmed with minimal intervention. This is an orange wine, the grapes fermented on their skins so the juice takes colour, phenolics and tannin, then aged six months in clay tinajas. The porous clay allows slow, gentle oxygen exchange, much like amphora ageing through history, which builds texture and a savoury, faintly oxidative depth while the warm Alicante climate ripens the aromatic Moscatel fully. The colour is a luminous gold. The nose is intensely Muscat, sweet grapey aromatics turned towards orange marmalade and apricot, with white flowers, honey and dried herbs. The palate, despite the sweet-scented nose, is dry, the skin contact giving a firm grip and the clay a savoury, stony length. Serve at 11 to 13 degrees in a wide glass.