Cantalapiedra Viticultores La Otea Pie Franco 2019

Cantalapiedra Viticultores La Otea Pie Franco 2019

Cantalapiedra Viticultores
$75.00

Grape: Verdejo
Vintage: 2019
Type: White

This dry white wine is crafted by the Cantalapiedra family from one-hundred-fifty-year-old ungrafted verdejo bush vines in Villanueva de Duero. The hand-picked grapes are pressed directly into six-hundred-liter French oak barrels for a spontaneous native yeast fermentation. It matures for eleven months in wood and another eleven months in stainless steel vats before bottling. This zero-makeup process focuses on capturing the natural texture and high acidity generated by the sandy local soils.

It pours a pale straw-gold color, opening with complex aromatics of preserved lemon, green orchard fruit, and fresh wild fennel. On the palate, a medium-to-full-bodied frame pairs dense citrus flavors with an underlying stony mineral core. A sharp wave of natural acidity cuts right through the slightly waxy mouthfeel, maintaining excellent freshness. The extended lees contact provides a subtle texture that frames the mid-palate cleanly. It finishes bone-dry, leaving a long saline trace.

Cantalapiedra Viticultores is located in La Seca, a village in the heart of Spain's Rueda appellation. The estate is run by father-and-son team Isaac and Manuel Cantalapiedra, with Manuel, a classically trained pianist, now leading the winemaking. They are a vanguard of minimal intervention winemaking in a region dominated by conventional producers. While Rueda is known for a consistent style of Verdejo, Cantalapiedra focuses on producing single-vineyard bottlings that highlight the unique differences in their terroirs. In the cellar, they use wild yeasts for fermentation and add minimal to no sulfur, relying on natural processes to express the character of their vineyards.