Parcela Las Canteras

Las Canteras is the Calvo family's white from a single plot: 2.5 hectares in Gumiel de Mercado, named on the front label and bottled in a numbered run of 2,863. Albillo Mayor is five per cent of the family's red Village. Here it is the whole wine.

Bottling it under the appellation is new. Ribera del Duero built its name on red, and only the rules that came into force in November 2019 let a white carry the appellation. It must be at least 75% Albillo Mayor.

The plot lies on the high limestone tableland of Gumiel de Mercado. A Spanish merchant's technical sheet for the 2023 places it in the paraje of Bocalaloba, at about 930 metres, on shallow limestone soils with rock 50 to 60 centimetres down. The sheet of the US importer, Grapes of Spain, puts the vines at about 20 years old, and a Swiss merchant dates the planting to the early 2000s. The importer calls the farming organic in practice, and its winery page says certification is under way.

The importer's sheet for the 2023 gives two to three days of cool skin contact, then fermentation with native yeasts, on the fine lees for the first 30 days. Twelve months in 500-litre French oak barrels follow, and nine more in bottle. The Spanish merchant describes only a few hours on the skins. For the 2024, WineWine, the Ukrainian importer, gives a hand harvest, a cool fermentation and 12 months in used French oak.

2024 was a short year in Ribera del Duero. The Consejo Regulador's harvest report counts a crop 19% smaller than 2023, and 32% less Albillo, after spring frost and hail. September and October were wet, with sharp swings in temperature, and with rot setting in, growers stopped waiting: about 45% of the crop came in during the single week from 30 September. The report expected the year's whites to be intensely aromatic and very fresh, with less structure and complexity than the 2023s.