Plácet Valtomelloso Blanco 2013

"It's always a treat to have two vintages from the same wine to taste together. I had two whites, including the 2013 Plácet Valtomelloso, from a year that saw up to five times more rain than the average, and the ripening and harvest were quite late. This pure Viura fermented in oval oak vats including malolactic, and had an élevage of some ten months. In 2013, they started doing a more severe green pruning and reduced yields quite a lot. The cool growing season has produced one of the freshest versions of Plácet in history--first vintage was 1997, one of the first modern white Riojas--with perfectly integrated oak, very clean, with just perfect ripeness and subtle aromas of orange peel, white flowers and wet chalk. The palate is similarly elegant, subtle and balanced, ultra clean, with superb definition and verticality. There is a quantum leap in quality here. It opens up spectacularly in the glass, so decant it in advance. Bravo! 9,600 bottles were filled in October 2014."