{"product_id":"ukan-rioja-blanco-2023","title":"Ukan Rioja Blanco 2023","description":"\u003ch2\u003eGet to know: UKAN Blanco 2023\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA rare, complex Spanish white wine from Rioja Alavesa, made to age.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eTasting Note\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHalf of this wine spent a year in new French oak, the rest in a raw concrete egg, and you can feel both in the glass: real weight and texture, without the fruit going soft or blowsy. What holds it together is a fine mineral thread running underneath, clay and limestone soils coming through in a wine that feels tightly wound rather than showy. It's dense and layered straight out of the bottle, so give it air; our buyer, tasting it back in March, reckoned it needed a proper decant to show what it's really made of. Once it opens up there's genuine depth, the kind of white you sit with for an hour rather than drink in a couple of gulps. High natural acidity keeps the whole thing precise and fresh rather than heavy, and it has real ageing potential, so there's no rush to open it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTop food pairings:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRoast turbot or hake with a butter sauce\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAged Manchego or another hard sheep's cheese\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWild mushroom risotto\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eKate Says\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"The whole team's been excited about this one. Koldo's put five generations of Rioja know-how into these vines: the white grapes actually grow at the top of his red plots, some of them over eighty years old, which says a lot about how much he cares about getting this one right. It's not a bottle for a quick glass after work. Open it and take your time with some nice food and no distractions.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eProducer Info\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUKAN Winery\u003c\/strong\u003e is a young project in Rioja Alavesa, founded by Koldo Eguren, the fifth generation of one of the region's best-known winemaking families. He's applying generations of accumulated knowledge to a different approach: single-vineyard selection from key Cru villages, prioritising grape quality and detailed, hands-on winemaking over volume. The structure follows the Bordeaux model, with UKAN as the top wine and Senderos as the second. We were introduced to UKAN through Jamie at fellow independent Old Chapel Cellars, who discovered the winery and first flagged it to us. We then invited UKAN's ambassador, Alejandro, over to show us the full range, and the partnership has grown from there, giving us the chance to bring you more of what UKAN does. Reserve Wines has a semi-direct, exclusive relationship with the winery, and this is the first white UKAN vintage we've had available in the UK.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHow it's made:\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eVarieties: 90% Viura, 5% Tempranillo Blanco, 5% other white varieties, from three old-vine parcels planted at the top of the winery's red-grape plots (Valderromán planted 1945, El Estado 1966, Zarzamochuelo 1940) on clay-limestone soils\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHand-picked into 15kg crates, then double-sorted, first by bunch and then grape by grape\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDestemmed, gently pressed and given 24 hours' cold maceration on the skins before the juice is drawn off and fermented\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAged for 12 months, split evenly between new 225-litre French oak barrels and a raw concrete egg\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA further 6 months in the concrete egg to settle before bottling in February 2025\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eGood to know:\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eRegion:\u003c\/strong\u003e Rioja Alavesa, DOCa Rioja, Spain\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eStyle:\u003c\/strong\u003e White, still, structured and full-bodied\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eClosure:\u003c\/strong\u003e Cork\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eVegan:\u003c\/strong\u003e No\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eABV:\u003c\/strong\u003e 13%\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eVintage:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2023\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy we love it:\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpanish white wines this ambitious don't come along often, and this one already carries a 94-point score from Tim Atkin, awarded before it even landed in the UK. Production is tiny: just 2,302 bottles, and this is the only shipment we've had so far. Buy one to lay down for a few years, or open it now and give it the air it needs to show what it's got.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ukan","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57692780659070,"sku":"SK-03131","price":55.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0950\/5962\/files\/UKANBlanco_2.jpg?v=1784205013","url":"https:\/\/www.reservewines.co.uk\/products\/ukan-rioja-blanco-2023","provider":"Reserve Wines","version":"1.0","type":"link"}