Manzanilla Fina - Miraflores Baja-Sanlúcar NV
← Bodegas de la Riva
Willy Pérez says, “You need to feel the ocean in a Manzanilla,” and one sip of this wine brings that statement to life. The Palomino grapes were grown just 7 km from the coast, on soils that were once under the ocean; rich in limestone and dotted with ancient ocean fossils. The wine is aged in solera (hence being non-vintage), with the barrels only half-filled to allow the classic flor layer to form, imparting umami and nuttiness to the wines. Saline and intensely flavoured, it offers notes of white blossom, pear, crisp apple, and rich toasted nuts.
Reviews for Manzanilla Fina - Miraflores Baja-Sanlúcar NV
Very attractive aromas of salted nuts, together with ocean breeze, light dried apple and honey. It’s medium-bodied with dried-fruit and honey flavors. Very intense and flavorful with a fantastic finish. Gorgeous. A benchmark for Manzanilla. Drink or hold.
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).
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.