Òrbita Venus Macabeu 2023

Òrbita Venus Macabeu is the work of René Barbier Meyer, an oenologist from a well known Priorat wine family, who makes it as a natural wine in Catalonia. Macabeo, the same grape used across the region for still and sparkling whites, is here given an unusual treatment. The wine spends eight months in oak barrels and a further eight months of biological ageing, developing under a veil of flor, the film of yeast that grows on the wine's surface and is more familiar from the cellars of Jerez. That flor consumes oxygen and by products in the wine, protecting it from browning while adding a yeasty, nutty depth and a savoury tang that sets this apart from a conventional Macabeo. The oak lends light structure and gentle oxidation. The wine is creamy and full on the palate, with dried flowers, almond and hazelnut on the nose, beeswax and a lemony freshness underneath, and a long, saline, savoury finish. Serve at 10 to 12 degrees in a white wine glass, ideally with food. It pairs with white fish, roast chicken, mushroom dishes and hard, nutty cheeses that suit its oxidative character.