Orange? Yes, a wine made with 2 months of skin contact. The magic here is not to lose sight of the terroir...
This is the first cuvée from Mélanie Hickman, David Sampedro's better half, under the "Struggling Vines" label.
An exceptional wine, mineral, complex et delicate. Nothing extreme or funky here.
38.00$/u in cases of 6 bottles
Regular Price: 41.95$/u
Reviews:
Phinca Hapa is an exciting new project run by American Melanie Hickman, who is the partner of David Sampedro. This is an orange wine made with skin contact from an old vine parcel of Viura and Malvasía planted high above the village of Elvillar. Complex and challenging, it has lovely quince, orange marmalade and black tea notes.
Drink 2018-21
92/100 Tim Atkin, Rioja Report 2018
The white 2016 Phinca Hapa Blanco is from a vineyard Melanie bought with her savings and renamed after her dog. The vineyard, in the village of Elvillar, consists of three hectares of white limestone soils planted in 1967 with Viura grapes (and Tempranillo in the lower parts). The wine is a blend of Viura with some 12% Garnacha Blanca and 6% Malvasía Riojana from the ripe grapes picked after they pick the grapes for their basic Bhilar white. The destemmed grapes fermented with skins in a 2,000-liter concrete vat for two months, and the wine spent one year in 600-liter French foudres. As a result, the wine has an amber color with a characterful nose mixing notes of balsam, quince, peach and honey—quite original and different. The palate has a texture that could be from a light red, with fine tannins and a chalky sensation that is a texture more than a flavor. One white for white meat. 2,300 bottles were filled in November 2017. Drink 2018 – 2026.
92 pts — Luis Gutiérrez, The Wine Advocate #235 (Feb. 2018)
