2023 Oliver Moragues, Giró Ros, IGP Mallorca Blanco, Spain.
One of the coolest, unique and pleasing white wines I’ve had this Summer is this beautifully crisp, mineral driven and refreshing Giró Ros by Oliver Maragues on the main Balearic Island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean Sea. Thanks to Robert Morrison of Authentic Wine Selections, who searched out and imported this tiny producer to the States and who shared this rarity with me recently. This delicately golden hued and subtle aromatic white has zesty range of citrus and stone fruits on the lighter framed medium bodied palate with a bone dry layering of tangerine, lemon, white peach, a touch of green apple, mango and quince, along with salty wet stone, bitter almond, leesy flinty notes, light florals and verbena. There’s fine definition here and air brings a nice rounded mouth feel without weight and lots of underlying acidity that keeps things bright, making this a great companion with a range of cuisine, but best with sea food, as would be expected considering its origins. Oliver Moragues, who’s family started in wine back in 1511, is one of the oldest and most respected wine estates in Mallorca, has a 500 year history and is focused on organic farming and native grape varietals, like Giró Ros in this wine. Giró Ros, a native pre-phylloxera variety from Mallorca is a very difficult grape to grow and produces very low yields, which almost led to its demise, but can make for outstanding wines, as seen here. Moragues does two picks, one early to preserve freshness and vitality and one late pick to add dimension, ripe tropical notes, and cut out green phenolics. This biodynamic wine, coming from the island’s, red tinted mineral rich limestone and clay soils, saw a slow whole cluster pressing of the carefully sorted grapes and was at low temperature fermented and lees rested just 6 weeks in newer large French oak barrels and then transferred to tank to get bottled quickly.
The Balearic Islands, including Mallorca, the biggest and most populated, Menorca, the least known, and Ibiza, the legendary party island, are an island group or archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, a considerable boat ride from Barcelona. This archipelago, I note from research, forms a province and autonomous community of Spain, with Palma de Mallorca (on Mallorca) being its capital and largest city, which is the main port and commercial hub. Formerly part of the Kingdom of Mallorca, the islands were made a province in the 19th century and which in 1983 received a Statute of Autonomy that later was reformed in 2007, that included a Statute that designates the Balearic Islands as one of the nationalities of Spain. The official languages of the Balearic Islands, which is a hugely popular tourist destination, are Catalan and Spanish, with the main towns having enough English speakers to make a visit there easy for most visitors. It’s noted that Mallorca produces some distinctive wines, particularly known for their red wines, which I’ve enjoyed a few times in the past, made from local grape varieties like Callet, Mantonegro, and some very rare indigenous white varieties like Moll (Prensal Blanc) and Giró Ros. Though not widely exported, mainly locally consumed, these Mallorcan wines are started to get noticed and appreciated for their unique character, influenced by the island’s Mediterranean climate and diverse terroirs. Once a very humble and rustic property, the winery notes that In the middle of the 20th century, Gabriel Oliver Ribas de Pina consolidated and modernized this old bodega, greatly improving the winery and began bottling wines under the Oliver Moragues label, becoming one of the top estates in Mallorca. More recently, under Joana Oliver Moragues, the commitment to organic farming and conversion to biodynamics have lifted the quality here, which is clearly on display in the wines, especially this one.
($28 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive