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At Bodegas Arzuaga, we marry the concepts of tradition and innovation together perfectly. In many of our red wines, we like to preserve the Ribera del Duero style that’s always characterised us, although we’re also committed to the more modern styles on the market and to working and investing months of effort in new projects. Those two concepts are, in fact, the starting point for two of Bodegas Arzuaga’s latest projects: two tremendous wines that are white to boot.
The first is our Arzuaga Albillo. You’ve surely heard about this since it’s only brought us success since its launch. Although it didn’t come out until 2019, this Albillo is a wine we’ve spent years working on. So many years, in fact, that the first vintage actually dates back to 2007. It was only 12 years later, after spending 93 months in oak, that this wine was in perfect condition to be released on the market.
This judgement has been shared by the prestigious Guía Peñín wine guide, the 2020 edition of which selected Arzuaga Albillo 2007 as its Newcomer Wine for the year, while the 2021 edition scored the 2008 vintage with 99 points turning it into one of the guide’s six ‘giants’. Arzuaga Albillo is ‘a selection of the best of everything we’ve made,’ explains managing director Ignacio Arzuaga, who affirms that ‘it may act a little, modestly speaking, as the spearhead for Albillo in Ribera thanks to what it’s achieved and its great scores’.
After discovering the nuances of Arzuaga Albillo, we switch to a totally different wine-making concept with Pago Mota. This is a barrel-fermented varietal Chardonnay that Ignacio Arzuaga defines as ‘fresh, dynamic and cheerful’. The wine is made from white grapes from our vineyards in the town of Malagón, in Castile-La Mancha, and can be considered a dynamic, everyday wine with a reasonable price. ‘A free and easy wine that’s fresh and easy to drink,’ which Ignacio Arzuaga defines in three words: ‘versatile, cheerful and fun’.
Arzuaga Albillo and Pago Mota, together with Fan D. Oro, make up Arzuaga’s family of white wines. A pledge by the winery that strongly demonstrates that even in a land of reds, it’s possible to make white wines of exceptionally high quality.