UBE Pandorga Pedro Ximenez 2024

UBE Pandorga comes from Ramiro Ibáñez and his Cota 45 project in the sherry country around Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Andalusia. It is a still, unfortified and bone-dry white made from Pedro Ximénez, a grape better known for sweet wines but here taken in a completely different direction. The vines grow on albariza, the region's brilliant white chalk soil, which holds winter rain deep in the ground for the dry summers and gives the wine its saline drive and pronounced chalky minerality. The wine is aged in barrel, where slow oxygen exchange and time on the lees add texture and a faint nutty, oxidative complexity while the fruit stays taut and savoury. It pours a pale colour and leads on the nose with citrus peel, almond and green apple, edged by chamomile and a touch of beeswax from the ageing. The palate is dry, saline and textured, its citrus and orchard fruit carried by firm acidity and a long, stony, mineral finish that speaks clearly of the albariza. This is a distinctive still wine that rewards the curious. Serve well chilled at around 10 degrees.