Organic. First produced in 2013, this idiosyncratic, pulpy, saline white is made from Spain's indigenous Malvar grape. This variety tends to give wines with good acidity and aromas of citrus and bitter almonds. The fruit is drawn from a tiny 0.44-hectare plot of old bush vines rooted in the chalky clay soils of Valdilecha in the Madrid mountains, some 730 metres above sea level.
Organic/biodynamic cultivation, meagre yields and old-school (very old-school!) fermentation with skins and stalks for 50 days are the keys to this delicious, fascinating and very fairly priced white. Aging that included crushed skins and stalks was the traditional way Spanish farmers made their wines, and this just works with Malvar. Following pressing, the wine matured in old 300-litre casks. It’s a wine loaded with charisma and mouthcoating texture fused with deep citrus and mineral vibrancy. It also gives a glimpse into the deep history of this part of Spain.

Dry wines have been a feature in Hungary for at least as long as the country’s legendary sweet wines. While these have lived in the shadows of the Aszú and late-harvest wines for decades, today, 70% of Tokaj’s wine production is devoted to the dry styles. Disznókő was one of the first estates to release a dry Furmint in 1992, and unlike the region’s dry Szamorodni–made from botrytised grapes–this pure Furmint is drawn from steep, mineral-rich volcanic vineyards specifically farmed for dry-wine production.

In Disznókő’s customary style, this lip-smacking, bone-dry white is all about purity and zesty freshness, capturing the vibrant juiciness and minerality so innate to this unique variety. Matured on lees in tank, it shimmers on the tongue with juicy pear, almond blossom and salty lemon goodness. Along with its impressive tension and focused, chalky drive, there’s a spicy Chablis thing going on, especially on the briny, salt-licked close. Serve as an apéritif, with seafood (it’s superb with a plate of oysters), or with poultry/game-bird dishes. 

Candea is the entry-level label from Quinta da Muradella, sourced from the Monterrei vineyards of José Luis Mateo’s close friend (and now collaborator) Juan José Vilela. The Vilela family was once one of the region’s largest vineyard owners and played a significant part in Mateo’s emergence as one of Spain’s most exciting wine growers. The white is an equal blend of Doña Blanca, Treixadura and Verdelho, sourced from mature, high-altitude vines in the Tamagos district, close to the Portuguese border. Fermented with natural yeasts and raised exclusively in tank on lees, this bright, savoury south Galician white is brimming with mouth-watering length, pulpy flesh and some pleasant grip on a tonic and racy finish. What value! It's a must-try.

Biodynamic. This delicious and racy white comprises 45% Sémillon, 45% Sauvignon Blanc and 10% Colombard, drawn from a two-hectare, biodynamic vineyard close to the banks of the Gironde River. Guillaume Hubert's grounded, vineyard-focused approach results in a vibrant, unworked and racy white whose crunchy freshness and juicy texture reflect its limestone soils more transparently than anything we have come to expect of white Bordeaux. 

The grapes are handpicked, manually sorted and undergo a 24-hour carbonic period before being pressed into a mixture of concrete vats and oak barrels. Here the wines complete their fermentation, carried out by indigenous yeasts only. In other words, it's a mould-breaking white Bordeaux, and just to be sure no one misses the point, the family releases it in a Burgundy-shaped bottle. Vibrating with the year’s stony freshness, it's a crunchy, racy white with mouth-watering lemon pith, fresh herbs and white floral notes, closing with silky grace and gentle phenolic bite. If you have a stereotype of old-school white Bordeaux in your mind, this earth-to-glass prototype is the wine to change your mind, as it did ours. Incidentally the wine’s name, Bonhomme, has the same root as bonhomie, French for exuberant friendliness. Fitting, really.

Village wine. Dry white. This charged, fuzzy/tangy, textural white takes its name from a trellis system unique to the Canary Islands and known locally as el cordón Trenzado. This trellising results in a plaited cordon with several of a single vine’s branches braided (trenzado) together.

It’s an old-vine blend of Listán Blanco from the high-altitude, north-facing vineyards of Los Realejos and La Orotava with a young vine vidueño (field blend) from La Florida, where Gual, Marmajuelo, Torrontés, Albillo Criollo, Vijariego Blanco and Verdelho populate the vineyard. All the grapes are hand-harvested and ferment (with a small portion left on skins) in large oak ovals, where they mature for nine months on lees before bottling. 

This is seductive and pure with saline/mineral notes alongside fresh citrus, grilled nuts and a flicker of smoky reduction. It’s fine-boned with a dense core of juicy, fleshy weight, framed by athletic composition and a very lengthy close. This is primed for the dining table.

Comète is a blend of 75% Petit Manseng and 25% Camaralet. The latter variety is hardly seen in Jurançon vineyards today, although it speaks volumes that many of the appellation’s more progressive domaines are invested. Maxime and Lucie Salharang’s Camaralet (which covers 10% of the vineyard) brings spicy/citrus cut to the juicier Manseng. The Manseng itself is drawn from a small canton of the vineyards facing southwest. Salharang explains that these vines deliver more power, and he uses only the first press juices that bring the most purity and finesse.

In the cellar, fermentation is spontaneous, and the wines are raised in old oak barrels (purchased from Smith-Haut Lafitte). In cooler years, Maxime stirs his lees to promote depth and texture. The wines always pass through malolactic conversion, which is needed to balance the extraordinary acidity gained in this cool terroir. Added sulphur is kept under 40 mg/L, and the wines are seldom fined before bottling. The 2022 is the most potent Comète we have yet shipped, yet even so, there’s a refreshing spine of racy freshness offsetting the wine’s grainy texture and juicy orange and white peach-scented fruit. Unfortunately, we have very little.

If any vineyard in France deserves its own appellation, it might be the Bourguignon family’s Laroque D’Antan. To cut a very long story short, in 2005, France’s foremost soil scientists, Claude and Lydia Bourguignon, discovered the ruins of an ancient vineyard in the small commune of Laroque-des-Arcs, just five kilometres from Cahors. At the time, this forgotten limestone terroir—likely abandoned following the 1870s phylloxera wave—was almost entirely obscured by forest. Over the following years, the Bourguignon family meticulously restored the vineyard and its terraces—root and branch. 

Between 2012 and today, the family completed several field grafting campaigns—a far more physical and time-consuming process than the common bench-grafting technique. While the lower terraces are devoted to red varieties, the whites are on the upper limestone causse, comprised of massale selection Sauvignon Blanc sourced from Cotat and Dagueneau, Sauvignon Gris, and two varieties from Domaine Plageoles in Gaillac, Mauzac and Verdanel.

A vineyard as strikingly singular as Laroque D’Antan deserves a wine worthy of flying its flag, and this is precisely what the domaine has given us. The cooler 2021 vintage delivered a succulent, spring-loaded white with scents of iodine and meadow flowers alongside crystalised flavours of yellow stone fruits and honeycomb: all encased in a long, satiny structure. Utterly unique and utterly delicious. Arthur Schopenhauer once said, “Genius hits a target no one else can see.” The Bourguignon family have hit the bullseye.