Honorio Rubio “Lias Finas” Crianza White 2011

Honorio Rubio’s long lees aged white “Lias Finas” is one of his five limited production series wines. It combines the richness of a long lees contact, barrel-aged white common in Premier and Grand Cru white Burgundy with a selection of his best high altitude Viura grapes. It’s a fresh, modern and elegantly rich style of white Rioja.

It began with Honorio’s efforts to explore traditional methods of stabilizing wine and the idea of creating world class whites with his best grapes. For “Lias Finas” Honorio took cues from the hundreds of year old traditions of long lees contact common to the top white wine appellations in France and the natural wine movement’s valorization of lost techniques. The result is a refined and well-structured white showing a kinship to white Burgundy, that at the same time retains its Rioja identity.

The Honorio Rubio “Lias Finas” Crianza White 2011, is a bright, lucid straw color. The nose is fragrant with racy scents of lemon with touches of vanilla, minerals and leesy undertones. The attack is bright and lively with a core of lemon flavors accented by notes of lime pith, fresh apple and creamy lemon curd. The mid-palate is harmonious with lees-driven density and subtle richness, undergirded with chalk and stone minerality. The finish is long, smooth and elegant with lingering notes of fresh cut lemon zest. A striking re-styling of white Rioja. 2600 numbered bottles made.

 
Bodegas Honrio Rubio is a small, dynamic and naturally-oriented family winery set in Cordovín, a high alititude town in the Rioja Alta sub-zone of Rioja. Honorio Rubio, the man, runs the winery with a maverick and visionary spirit, building upon the foundation of his family’s more than 100 year winemaking tradition, subterranean cellars and winery in Cordovín.