Snow! Snow in South London! It's a miracle! Our wine of the day is as golden as the sun reflecting off of the snow. A beautiful white rioja...

Izadi is based in Villabuena in the Rioja Alavesa, the highest part of Rioja. The hillside winery (whose precipitous slope allows for gravity assisted production) was founded in 1987 by Gonzalo Anton as a modern breakaway from the traditional style of wine produced by other members of his family. As his son Lalo, who now runs the estate, says: "the whole concept of Izadi really started around wanting to produce wine to satisfy the needs of our friends over a meal". Izadi produces modern, international wines that are true to their roots and a natural expression of the area.

The grapes for the Izadi wines are grown on 189 hectares of vineyard, all of which are either owned or leased on long term contracts, so Izadi have full control over production. Fruit for the Rioja Blanco comes from the Villabuena and Samaniego vineyards. All the vineyards have traditionally trained bush vines, a method which they believe gives better exposure of the grapes, leading to evenly ripe and matured fruit.

2016 harvest was characterised by its delayed progression, compared to the last 10 years. This delay was mainly due to low temperatures in spring. Early winter was very dry but the end of winter and beginning of spring saw some much needed rainfall, allowing for good vegetative growth of the vineyards before flowering. Little rainfall in summer meant berries were small in size but concentrated in flavour. Climatic conditions during the last stage of ripening produced grapes of extraordinary health, with an optimum balance between the technical and phenolic ripeness.

The grapes were hand harvested and then destemmed and softly crushed. The must was fermented in 100% new French (Bertomieu), fine grain oak casks, where it stayed for three months. Batonnage (lees stirring) took place daily for the first few weeks.

Izadi Rioja Blanco 2016 @ £12.95 - Buy it here!

The wine is straw yellow in colour with youthful tones. With succulent citrus and yellow stone fruit on both the nose and the palate, this well-balanced wine combines a richness and freshness frequently missing in white Rioja.

Loads of this in, our of the shop favourites for sure!