The winery situated in the heart of Rioja Alavesa can presume of producing more white wines than reds, based exclusively on native varieties, some of them minority varieties. Larrosa Blanca, Izadi Selección or El Regalo are some of these projects that reveal the winery’s interest in white wines.
It was in the early 1990s when Izadi, which has almost 200 micro-plots of old vineyards in the triangle formed by Villabuena, Samaniego and Ábalos, began to make a white wine based on Viura and Malvasía of those vineyards planted in the middle of the last century. For 20 years his barrel-fermented white wine represented the tradition of Rioja Alavesa, using the white varieties planted in the headlands of those small plots where red and white grapes coexisted.
However, the concern that this winery, which has always shown its roots in gastronomy, has led it to develop new white projects over the last 15 years, under its vision of becoming a benchmark in Rioja beyond its reds. To do this, “we realized that we had to resort to minority varieties: Garnacha Blanca, Matura Blanca, Turruntés... which have allowed us to give another dimension to our whites, as each of them contributes something to the whole that improves the blends”, says Lalo Antón, Izadi’s CEO.
“Understanding how each of these varieties contributes or how we have to vinify them (whether in stainless steel, cement, foudre, Bordeaux barrels, bocoyes...) is key, and that can only be achieved after many years of trial and error, patience and learning,” adds Antón. Thanks to this, today Izadi produces up to five white wines, to which two rosés must be added, where the Villabuena winery is also one of the pioneers.
Izadi Selección Blanco was one of the first wines to tackle new varieties. In fact, it is the only one in Rioja with the six native varietals: Viura and Malvasía (inherited from the barrel fermentation of the 1990s), Garnacha Blanca, Tempranillo Blanco, Matura Blanca and Turruntés. Coincidentally, of this last variety, Izadi has 25% of the production of the entire appellation of origin, which has only 4.8 hectares.
Among all these varieties, Izadi identified Garnacha Blanca, which comes mainly from some vineyards near Baños de Ebro and San Vicente, as the one with the greatest potential to produce a young single varietal, with a great aromatic expressiveness and a fresh and fruity mouthfeel. Its name: Larrosa Blanca. This wine also completes the Larrosa project, a trilogy based on the Garnacha variety.
“At this point, we realized that it was time to have a great white wine among our wines, one of those in which you spare no effort and that are called to mark an era,” confesses Roberto Vicente, the company's winemaker. “For this, we have resorted to our best vineyard, a singular vineyard, El Regalo, which, like all the old vineyards in the area, treasures an exquisite varietal richness with Viura and Malvasia vines, among others, planted back in 1936, and whose grapes are perfect for creating wines for aging”, adds the Riojan winemaker.
These wines are joined by two other new projects that will be released in the coming months, “and which have already been bottled for some time. The idea is to show the diversity and high potential of white wines in Rioja, which is achieved thanks to years of work with local varieties, which we have been committed to for decades,” says Lalo Antón.
