June 2025 Blanco y Branco Club

Allende 2020 Blanco Rioja Regular Price: $35.99 Club Price: $30.59 Buy Now

Spain’s white wines are having a moment.  No, we’re not talking about your friend's Spanish abuelo's favorite oxidized Viura from a spider-web filled bodega in Haro. Those wines still have their place (yes, Lopez de Herdia, we still love you!), but the real action is happening in the shift toward vibrancy, florality, and lift. Welcome to the age of the aromatic Spanish white.

A key figure in that shift? Malvasía. Once sidelined, now surging. And our June choice, the Allende Blanco 2020, is Exhibit A.

The wine comes from Finca Allende, based in Briones, one of the most pedigreed villages in Rioja Alta. Founded in the 1990s by winemaker Miguel Ángel de Gregorio, Allende has built its reputation on an almost Burgundian approach to Rioja: precision over power, terroir over tradition. And this Blanco is a perfect example of that philosophy.

The blend is 95% Viura, the workhorse grape of Rioja white, and 5% Malvasía Riojana. On paper, that’s not a big percentage. But make no mistake, Malvasía speaks loud. Its floral aromatics give this wine lift, energy, and dimension. Think white peach, honeysuckle, fresh almond, and orange blossom, all sitting on top of a creamy, leesy mid-palate.

Fermented and aged in French oak for seven months, the wine has structure without bulk. The oak is present but finely integrated. There's no heavy toast, no buttered popcorn, just depth, texture, and elegance. The wine goes through bâtonnage (lees stirring), which adds that slightly creamy, almost grainy mouthfeel that reminds us more of Puligny than of anything from the Ebro.

And here’s the kicker: 2020 wasn’t an easy vintage. I know, I was there.  It was HOT! Early rains, a hot summer, and a harvest that required careful timing. But Allende handled it like the seasoned pros they are, delivering a wine that not damaged by heat, rather, it seems good because of the ripeness the season delivered. 

What’s exciting here isn’t just the wine, it’s what it represents. We’re watching a generational shift in white Rioja. The oxidative, nutty styles that once dominated the category are making room for wines like this: fresh, floral, structured, and clean. Malvasía isn’t just a blending grape anymore. It's almost a bit of the quiet conductor, like the rare classical orchestra where the first violinist IS the conductor, driving the dynamics with her melody, right from her chair. 

This is a wine for the in-between moments. Not quite crisp-and-chill. Not quite rich-and-roast. It’s the kind of bottle you open when dinner’s taking longer than planned and you want something to sip that feels like a reward. Serve cool, not cold. Let it open. It’s not in a rush, and neither should you be.

Xisto Ilimitado 2023 Branco Douro Regular Price: $32.99 Club Price: $28.04 Buy Now

Sometimes choosing the right wine for the club feels like a stalemate between greatness and greatness. That was the case when Luis Seabra visited our shop in San Francisco this spring. He brought his full lineup: reds, whites, field blends, high elevation micro-parcel madness, and every single one was excellent. Not “solid” or “interesting.” Outstanding! Deciding which bottle to include wasn’t about picking the best. It was about picking what fit.

We landed on the 2023 Xisto Ilimitado Branco, a white wine that feels almost like a Portuguese riff on Chablis. It’s light but not thin, floral but not perfumed, clean but not sterile. There’s minerality in spades, like wet river rock, and just enough tension on the palate to make you pay attention.

Seabra is a name that’s been on serious importers’ lips for years now. He cut his teeth making the wines at Niepoort before founding his own label. His philosophy is clear: let the vineyard speak, stay out of the way, and don’t polish the edges off a wine that wasn’t meant to be smooth. He’s part of a wave of winemakers redefining the Douro—not as a place only for Port, or brooding, extracted reds, but as one of the most exciting sources for lithe, mineral whites in all of Europe.

The Branco is built from indigenous grapes: Rabigato, Códega, Gouveio, and Viosinho, pulled from high-elevation schist soils that stay cool and hard through the Portuguese summer. Fermented with native yeasts and raised in neutral barrels, the wine has a texture that’s almost saline, with notes of white flowers, citrus pith, and crushed stone. It’s a wine that doesn't immediately command your attention.  It slowly takes it over and by the third glass it almost takes your palate hostage.  

As a Spanish Wine Club member, your fridge is likely not full of Sancerre, but if you’ve been a secret Chablis fan who's not looking to find French pleasure on the Iberian peninsula, this is your next move. 

Luis didn’t come to sell us this wine. He just showed up, poured the lineup, and let the bottles speak. This one spoke clearly to us and we are certain it will speak clearly to you.  Yet another proof that Portugal, while known mostly for its red wines, is a reliable source of amazing white wines.