PRELVM - 'Raposa Naranja' - Macabeu - Extremadura, ES - 2021

A ridiculously tasty treat. Truly puts the Orange in Orange wine.

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Type: ORANGE WINE | Variety: Skin-Contact Macabeo | Additional info: organic, spontaneous fermentation, amphora-aged, no fining/filtering, no added S02

This orange wine is made from 39-year old Macabeo vines that are grown on clay soils that contain a lot of organic matter. Hand-harvested and destemmed, followed by spontanoeous fermentation in amphorae with daily punching down. Maceration on skins for 25 days, followed by 12 months in amphorae coated with beeswax from the estate. No manipulations whatsoever, and zero added sulfur.
Orange and cloudy wine with amber hue. Nose of peaches, orange zest, nuts and
olives. On the palate: a richer, more complex orange wine, with a mix of zest but lots of fall and winter spices: clove, allspice, black pepper. A nice, warming orange wine.

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La Bodega de Juan Romero is located in the oft-neglected Extremadura region of Spain. The estate was first established to produce wine to be sold exclusively to the family bar in the 1950s. With every subsequent generation, the Romero family found a way to stand out in a sea of conventional grape growing. In the 1970s they expanded their vineyards by mixing indigenous varietals such as Cayetana Blanca with experimental plantings such as Gewürztraminer. Then, in the 1990s, they converted to organic farming, a rarity in Extremadura even today.
In recent years, winemaker and owner Juan Leandro Romero has become more and more interested in natural wine and launched PRELVM, a line of natural wines spontaneously fermented and aged in locally-crafted clay amphorae and made according to non-interventionist concepts: no filtering or fining, nor any added sulfur. He is blazing a trail in a region that deserves our attention!