Altos de la Guardia Blanco 2022

From one of Spain’s most awarded wine cellars (600+ awards and counting), situated high above the clouds in Rioja’s northern Rioja Alavesa sub-zone, Altos de la Guardia Blanco is a voluptuous and mouthwatering, full-bodied white that offers generous flavors of pear and guava.

It’s made from old-vine Viura grown in and around the high-altitude villages of Kripan (at about 2,200 feet in elevation) and El Bilar (at about 1,900 feet in elevation), where cooler temperatures preserve freshness and increased sunlight concentrates flavors.

Viura is the principal white grape of Rioja, and a bit of a chameleon in the wine cellar thanks to its rather neutral character. If fermented in stainless steel, it can be super fresh and expressive, with lovely stone-fruit flavors and an interesting, Burgundy-like texture. But when oak-aged, expressions are more likely to be velvet-smooth, fruit-forward and almost honeyed in nature.

Because both techniques were used to produce this bottling—some fruit was fermented in steel, and about a third fermented in oak—and the final blend was aged in oak, it offers the best of both worlds.

The wine opens with enchanting elderflower and white peach aromas and pours into a vibrant, yet pillow-soft palate of tropical and orchard fruit flavors. Delicious on its own, it would also be a welcome partner to aged or creamy cheeses, hearty fish preparations and roasted poultry, or good friends and a picnic table.

Though demand for white Rioja continues to rise, yields of this wine remain small (and have been getting smaller each year). This is likely the last vintage we’ll see of this wine for a few years, so hurry to secure yours.