De la Riva Manzanilla Fina Miraflores Baja

NV / 94 puntos

The 2024 bottling of the NV Manzanilla Fina Miraflores Baja has the same source as the other 2024 Fino, but here they are looking for more reductive character and more sea, a salty character. It makes you salivate with the intense salinity. This is more closed, an austere white wine with little influence from the flor. It finishes with a bitter twist and very pungent, persistent flavors. This comes from Miraflores Baja, from the Casilla Verde vineyard. This is an amazing value for money. Oceanic austerity. 2,500 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2024 (on the back label, it says Lot 3/24, the third from 2024).

NV / 93 puntos

The NV Manzanilla Fina Miraflores Baja is sourced from Bodegas del Río, an "almacenista" (a sort of wholesaler that focuses on maturation of young wines) used mainly by La Gitana and Lustau. Located in Sanlúcar, very close to the sea/river, Bodegas del Río has their own vineyards and produces their wines from their vines in the vineyard Casilla Verde in the Pago Miraflores Baja. It's a classical Manzanilla fermented in stainless steel and then put in old casks (De La Riva has signed an agreement to control a number of casks). This is a young and very Sanlúcar Manzanilla, with the sapidity going to the front of the mouth. It has the diesel-like touch and the spicy and ash-like notes, with the sharp palate of Miraflores with no bitterness in the back of the palate: it stays at the front of the mouth, the tip of the tongue. The back label includes the bottling date, and there are 3,500 bottles in the first saca from April 2019. Great value Manzanilla. This is a wine that should be more widely available, as they are able to do 7,000+ bottles per year.