Josep Serra 'Aucalá' Blanco 2023

Josep Serra is a fourth-generation grower from the Ribera d'Ebre. He spent twenty years running the technical side of other people's wineries before buying three hectares of very old vines in upper Capçanes, Montsant, in 2001. His project in Terra Alta followed in 2013: nine hectares on limestone, clay, and quaternary fossil dunes, farmed with minimal intervention using the estate's own native microbiota. 

White Garnacha has spent a century as an anchor in Catalan white wines. Terra Alta holds roughly a third of the world's plantings and has quietly been proving the grape can stand alone. Almond blossom, white peach, dried Mediterranean herbs, a chalky mineral thread running underneath. The wine ages in contact with the lees for about 8 months, which gives it weight and roundness, but it's also very, very fresh, with that light bitter twist that white Garnacha does so well. 

Honestly, this is the kind of white that makes you question why you ever bothered with anything else. It's not trying to be fancy, it's not pretending to be something it's not. It's just good.