Chivite Coleccion 125 Vendimia Tardia White Wine

Elaboration

El Candelero is a vineyard planted in 1969 in the Ribera Baja, the southernmost corner of Navarra — a single plot of well-drained alluvial and gravelly soils where the Mediterranean-continental climate produces the long, arid, sunny autumns that late harvest viticulture demands. Here, J. Chivite Family Estates — a winery with roots in Navarra dating to 1647, one of the oldest continuously operating family estates in Spain — produces its most celebrated white wine with a level of selection that borders on the obsessive: grapes harvested manually and in successive passes, cutting only the bunches that have reached the precise concentration of sugar required, bunch by bunch, grape by grape, until only the finest fruit of the vintage enters the cellar. From there, the Moscatel de Grano Menudo is pressed and transferred directly to French oak barrels where it ferments until the desired residual sugar is achieved, then rested on its fine lees for months before bottling. The 2018 — intense and elegant on the nose, enveloping and savoury on the palate, with a long finish of dried fig and honey — is considered one of the finest expressions the Colección 125 has ever produced.