Missenyora 2024

Missenyora is an organic single-variety Macabeo from L'Olivera, a social integration cooperative based at Vallbona de les Monges in Lleida, Catalonia, beside the Cistercian monastery of Santa Maria de Vallbona. The name refers to the abbesses of that house, and the wine nods to vi bullit, an old local tradition of a lightly sweet white. D.O. Costers del Segre is a continental inland zone, with hot days and cool nights that give Macabeo ripe fruit while retaining acidity. The wine is barrel fermented and then aged for four months in French and American oak. Fermenting in wood and keeping the wine on its lees builds texture and a fine reductive character, while the barrel adds gentle oxygen and oak spice; malolactic softening rounds the mid palate. The result is fuller and more savoury than a tank-made Macabeo. It shows a pale gold colour and a nose of ripe pear and lemon with vanilla, toasted bread and hazelnut. The palate is broad and creamy, with beeswax and a honeyed note, closing dry and long. Serve at 10 to 12 degrees with roast chicken, grilled white fish or hard mountain cheese.