Cantalapiedra Majuelo del Chiviritero Verdejo 2022

Cantalapiedra Majuelo del Chiviritero Verdejo 2022

Cantalapiedra Viticultores
$40.00

Grape: Verdejo
Vintage: 2022
Type: White

This white wine comes from the El Chiviritero single vineyard, a small one-hectare plot planted with verdejo in 1981 in La Seca. The Cantalapiedra family harvests the fruit by hand from vines rooted in sandy clay and pebble soils over limestone. The winemaking involves a twenty-four hour skin maceration before pressing and undergoing a spontaneous fermentation with native wild yeasts. Aged for nine months on fine lees in neutral French oak barrels, this bottling captures a focused single-vineyard expression.

It pours a pale gold-straw color, opening with aromatics of ripe pear, lemon curd, and bitter almond. A medium-bodied frame balances orchard fruit flavors with a sharp, racy line of mineral acidity. The extended lees contact contributes a savory waxy texture that rounds out the mid-palate cleanly without heavy volume. Notes of dried herbs and wet rock develop nicely as the wine breathes. It finishes dry, leaving a clean, persistent 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.