Cortijo Los Aguilares Breñal 2024

Cortijo Los Aguilares is a family estate high in the Serranía de Ronda, in Málaga, southern Spain, farming vines above 900 metres among ancient holm oaks. Breñal is a white blend of Garnacha Blanca, Vijariego Blanco and Viognier, farmed organically. Altitude is the key to this wine: at over 900 metres the days are warm enough to ripen the fruit fully while the nights turn cold, and that wide day-to-night temperature range preserves the acidity, freshness and aromatic detail that inland Andalusia might otherwise lose to the heat. The stony, chalk-rich soils feed through into the wine's mineral character. Aged six months on its lees in separate containers, the wine gains a soft, textured roundness from contact with the spent yeast, keeping the emphasis on fruit and site rather than oak. The colour is bright pale straw. The nose leads with ripe pear and white peach over white flowers, with a clear mineral note of chalk and graphite. The palate is fresh and balanced, the ripe fruit lifted by mountain acidity and a stony, saline finish. Serve at 10 to 11 degrees.