2017 Navaherreros White Blend

WA90+ The 2017 Navaherreros Blanco de Bernabeleva is a similar blend to the 2016—60% Albillo Real and 40% Macabeo—and it shows the freshness that the Albillo Real usually has in warmer years, when the ripening is fast and the phenolic ripeness is perhaps lower while the acidity remains a little higher. This is a constant when tasting the 2017s next to the 2018s, when the warmer year (2017) produced fresher whites and the cooler year (2018) seems to have delivered riper whites with more honeyed character. There is balanced and low alcohol (12%) from grapes that were picked starting the 2nd of August. The wine is harmonious, and the varieties feel very integrated. They produced 14,500 bottles that were bottled in July 2018.
Winemaker Notes: Navaherrerros Blanco is a white wine made from albillo grapes from every vineyard in the estate and the macabeo from single plot. Through different soils, orientations and microclimates, it expresses San Martin de Valdeiglesias’ terroir.
Blend: 70% Albillo Real, 30% Macabeo. The vines are between 30 and 85 years old, and are harvested manually. Maceration periods depend on the features of each vineyard. Vinification takes place in 500 and 600 l French oak barrels, where the wine ages sur lie. The wine is neither stabilized nor filtrated.

In 1923, Dr Vicente Álvarez-Villamil bought Bernabeleva, an estate in San Martín de Valdeiglesias (Madrid). It is located at the foot of the Cerro de Guisando and the Gredos mountains and adjacent to the Tórtolas stream that formed the border of two Roman provinces: Lusitania and Tarraconense. For decades, Dr Álvarez-Villamil’s descendants have fondly taken care of the old vines he planted, with the intention of someday producing quality honest wines.
The logo represents the goddess of hunt, to whom, in ancient times, sacred forests were dedicated. In pre Roman cultures, consecration of a forest to this deity was signaled on tree barks or on something more imperishable like stone. Bernabeleva, literally, means the path of the bear, where the bear lives, or next to the bear. There are two primary inspirations in the design of the logo: the nearby Toros de Guisando (which maybe bears, bulls or boars); an old photo of Luisa, the doctor’s daughter, mimicking the myth of Europa and Zeus.

The soils are tawny sands formed from decomposed granite rock, with relatively high acidity and limited amounts of nutrients.  Annual rainfall is around 628 mm per year.  The vineyards have different orientations and sizes, from 500 square meters to 3 hectares, on slopes, hillsides and foothills.  Soils are shallow on the higher plots, which are over 830 meters above sea level.