Alberto Orte Cadiz Tintilla Vara y Pulgar 2022 NO20231025 California Grenache with the volume

California Grenache with the volume turned down and the energy turned up

which is only possible because the family grows every grape themselves — 110 hectares farmed organically in Torrelavit

so it says something that they put this much care into a Sauvignon Blanc

especially when considering the exhausting effort made to craft such an inexpensive sparkler from one of the Loire Valley’s greatest terroirs

Alberto Orte Cadiz Tintilla Vara y Pulgar 2022 NO20231025 California Grenache with the volumeTintilla de Rota was nearly extinct, a native red grape of the Cadiz coast all but plowed under in sherry country until Alberto Orte went looking for the last old vines. What he found makes a wine that has almost nothing to do with what you'd expect from southern Spain: dark, savory, and salt licked, grown on the same bright albariza chalk that gives fino its lift. Orte ferments with native yeasts, some whole clusters, and foot treading, then ages it