The only wine not from 2022 this time was the 2023 Blanco, the only white he makes with Garnacha Blanca, planted at the top of La Loma vineyard in 1946, and Viura, taken from different old vineyards where it's interplanted with the red; and in 2023, he also purchased two plots on red sandy soils in the paraje of Los Mártires. The two varieties were picked and fermented separately in 500-liter oak barrels, where the wines matured with lees for 10 months. He looks for acidity, freshness and minerality, and the oak has to play a secondary role. This year it's more Viura, 70%, and the rest Garnacha Blanca, and the wine reached 13.5% alcohol, achieving his goal, with a pH of 3.2 and 6.9 grams of acidity. It has a floral and fruit-driven nose, very clean with subtle herbs and spices. It's elegant and fresh, precise and tasty, long and with potential to improve in bottle. (LG)

It's easy to overlook Miguel Merino's white, such is the outstanding quality of his reds, but this is a beautiful wine. Viura takes the spotlight here, backed up by 30% Garnacha Blanca. Creamy and rich, there's something almost Viognier-like about it in 2022, with flavours of peaches and cream supported by balancing acidity and attractive baking spice sweetness. 2025-29

The 2023 Rioja Blanco from Migel Merino is an old vine wine made from a blend of seventy percent Viura and thirty percent Garnacha Blanca. The Garnacha Blanca hails from a vineyard called La Loma planted in 1JG:946. The Viura vines are not as old, hailing from a vineyard called Mingortiz, planted on very gravelly soils. The wine is barrel-fermented and raised for ten months in five hundred liter demi-muids. The 2023 version comes in at an even fourteen percent octane and offers up a deep and utterly classic bouquet of lemon, pear, raw almond, salty soil tones, a touch of bergamot and a lovely framing of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, young, racy and full-bodied, with a superb core of fruit, excellent soil undertow and grip, fine focus and balance and a long, youthfully complex and nicely snappy finish that closes with a note of citrus peel. This is an excellent bottle of Rioja Blanca that is still too young for primetime drinking and really deserves another three or four years in the cellar before broaching. But, it will be excellent in due course.