Las Tres

Las Tres is the white of the Chozas Carrascal counting range: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Macabeo, all planted on the estate from 1992. Chardonnay is the family's big bet among the whites, with 6.5 hectares spread over several plots. Sauvignon Blanc was planted as an experiment and now covers just under 3.5 hectares.

The producer gives each grape a job in the blend: aroma from the Sauvignon Blanc, freshness from the Macabeo, power and length from the Chardonnay. They are picked separately between six and nine in the morning, in the last weeks of August and the first of September, and each gets eight to ten hours on its skins at low temperature before the free-run juice is drawn off.

All three ferment in 220 litre French oak barrels, new and one year old. The lees are stirred every day for six to eight weeks, then the wine rests on its fine lees, unstirred, for another two to four. The final blend is made at the end of November or early December, and the wine is bottled in January.

The barrel is not only a house style. The rules of Vino de Pago Chozas Carrascal require the estate's white to ferment in oak, so a steel-fermented version of this blend could not carry the appellation at all.