May 2025 Blanco y Branco Club

Sierra Cantabria 2022 Organza Blanco Regular Price: $39.99 Club Price: $33.99 Buy Now

There are white wines that whisper. Organza doesn’t whisper. It glides in wearing silk gloves and a stare that says don’t underestimate me. This is the 2022 vintage of Organza, from Sierra Cantabria—a white Rioja with the architecture of great white Burgundy and the soul of a seasoned aristocrat who’s seen some things.  And had yours truly, owner of the Spanish Table not discovered it at a roundtable at the Eguren's during a trip in September of 2024 and bought it immediately, it wouldn't have found its way to your May club.  Thank me later!

The wine comes from the Eguren family, and if you’re even halfway familiar with Rioja, you already know that name rings out. For five generations, the Egurens have been shaping some of the most compelling wines in Spain. While over here in the US they may be considered more a "cult" winery, they are are oenological royalty in San Vicente de la Sonsierra.  Many consider San Vicente to be the heart of Rioja Alta—a place where high elevation, limestone soils, and generational stubbornness combine to produce wines of staggering depth and longevity. These aren’t corporate conglomerates with hired guns in the cellar; these are people who’ve walked the same vineyards for decades (and who let me walk the vineyards with them), who know which parcel gets the wind first and which row the hawks perch above.

Organza is their white wine statement piece—proof that Rioja Blanco isn’t just about quaint old Viura or dusty oxidized bottles. It’s a blend of Viura, Malvasía, and Garnacha Blanca, sourced from some of the family’s best plots, all fermented and aged in new French oak barrels. It’s not here to play the supporting role. This wine is front and center, draped in lees contact and shot through with smoke, spice, and the kind of texture that makes you rethink everything you thought you knew about white wine.

The mouthfeel is the first thing that hits: thick, almost oily, but kept in line by firm acidity and well-integrated oak. You get baked pear, grilled lemon, toasted hazelnut, beeswax, a flicker of chamomile and wet stones. It’s rich but never flabby—like a heavyweight who moves like a dancer (is the Malvasia the magic dance slipper?). If you’re looking for a patio sipper, keep walking. If you want a white wine that demands a big filet of the daily fresh catch grilled over a wood fire, or a long conversation, or a second bottle opened before dinner’s even plated—this is your move.  Or, if your mom is powerful, accomplished woman who loves Chardonnay, treat her to this bottle as a combination of honoring her and challenging her to see if she can "figure it out".

The 2023 vintage gave a bit of everything: a mild spring, a warm dry summer, and clean fruit at harvest. In the hands of a lesser team, that’s a recipe for mediocrity. But the Egurens don’t do mediocrity. They do ambition, precision, and wines that age like legends. Organza may be young now, but it’s already humming with intent.

In a lineup full of reds, this is the white that shows up and flips the table. Decant it. Drink it out of your biggest glass. Don’t apologize. This wine doesn’t. 

PS:  Get more of this while you can.  The only other Rioja white that comes even close to this is Marques De Murrieta's Capellania.  It used to cost twice as much and now sells for $130 a bottle.  Organza is right on par with it.  Power and grace at this price won't last long.  We only have 5 more cases.

Casa de Mouraz 2022 Dão Encruzado Regular Price: $29.99 Club Price: $25.99 Buy Now

Between wine professionals, there exists an informal genre of wine that is affectionately referred to as ‘the Salty White Wine Club’. Unfortunately, this is not one of our actual Wine Clubs at TST, but is instead a faux-genre of bright, saline, mineral-driven white wines that are perfect for warm days and fresh seafood. It can also refer to the people that enjoy them. Many of our readers are likely already aware of many of the wines that are quietly a part of this genre: Albariño, Vermentino, and Chablis to name a few. Less of our readers may be familiar with Encruzado for the Dão, which offers some of the best value for the dollar within the genre.

What better way to express the personality of the grape than to look towards a wine from a small, sustainably farmed, producer? Casa de Mouraz began as a labor of love adventure when Sara Dionísio and António Ribeiro left their secure, city jobs in Lisbon to set up shop in the verdant Dão wine region to the north. The settled on 25 hectares of vines that had been ECOCERT sustainably certified since 1996 and by 2006 the two had completely converted their plots to biodynamic farming: the most rigorous organic and environmentally-friendly certification in viticulture. It also creates wines of distinct freshness and vibrancy. 

Most people think of the bombastic Douros or spritzy Vinho Verdes when they think of Portuguese wine. However the Dão region represents a lot of elegance, finesse and value to us at TST.  The climate and the traditional grape varietals lean towards the production of much brighter and more delicate styles of wine. 

No better is this exemplified than in this month’s Blanco y Branco #2 wine. Casa de Mouraz’s Encruzado comes from a few all-granite plots which provide both excellent drainage and concentration of fruit. The grapes are fermented by natural spontaneous yeasts, and the wine is rested on the lees (the dead yeast cells) for 6 months before bottling. Routine battonage, or stirring of the lees, adds mid-palate roundness and length to the textural experience of the wine. The wine is dry, lies at a modest 13% abv, and is a delight to drink. Honey, assorted citrus flowers, fresh Asian pear, and wet stone make up the core tasting notes of the wine, while zippy acidity keeps wine energetic and light on it’s feet. The finish is tart, and has a distinct chestnut flower note (we’re not kidding). Full of character, but very delicately expressed, this wine would love a charcuterie party or pulpo a la gallega con patatas.