Sierra de Tolono Rioja Blanco 2023

Sierra de Tolono Rioja Blanco 2023

Sierra de Tolono
$22.00

Grape: Viura
Vintage: 2023
Type: White

This un-oaked white wine is a youthfully focused expression of the viura grape produced by Sandra Bravo in Rioja Alavesa. The grapes are hand-harvested early in the season to capture a low sugar concentration and lock in intense cool-climate freshness. The winemaking involves a spontaneous native fermentation inside neutral stainless steel tanks, followed by a complete malolactic conversion on the fine lees. Bypassing modern wood barrels, the liquid settles in steel and is bottled early in January.

It pours a pale straw hue with green highlights, releasing clean aromatics of white peach, fresh pear, and delicate garden herbs. A light-to-medium frame is bone-dry and exceptionally crisp, focusing on a linear, fruit-driven presentation. A vertical wave of vibrant acidity cuts right through the texture, providing excellent lift and refreshing energy. The short steel lees aging lends a structural cushion that rounds out the mouthfeel nicely. It finishes clean, dry, and harmonious.

Sierra de Tolono is Sandra Bravo's Rioja Alavesa project, based in the high, limestone-rich foothills below the Sierra de Cantabria. After working in several regions, Bravo returned to make wines that express the cooler, more Atlantic side of Rioja through old vines, organic farming and parcel selection around villages such as Rivas de Tereso. Her cellar work avoids the heavy oak signatures associated with classic Rioja, favoring native fermentations, concrete, amphora and used wood. The wines are fresh, floral and precise, built around Tempranillo, Garnacha, Viura and the mountain wind that preserves acidity in this part of the region.