La Ola del Melillero

Description

VINEYARDS: La Ola del Melillero is mainly produced from Pedro Ximenez (PX) grapes from the Natural Park Montes de Malaga. It comes from small plots of between 30 and 150 years old, in the Malaga municipality, almost hidden in a Mediterranean forest of holm oaks, cork oaks and Aleppo pines. The muscatel grapes come from six plots in two municipalities of the Upper Axarquía region, located at the foothills of The Natural Park Sierra Tejeda

These are dry farmed, mountain vineyards located at an altitude between 800 and 1,000 m. It is an extremely steep topography, with slopes of between 46 and 76%. that requires manual labour using age-old viticulture techniques. In these conditions, the yields are very low (900-1000 kg/ha), but the concentration of the berry is optimal for making quality wines.

CLIMATOLOGY: Sub-humid Mediterranean climate with an average temperature of 15-16 ºC. An annual rainfall in 2018 was below 500 mm.

SOILS: Montes de Málaga (PX) has extremely complex and ancient soils. Predominant phyllites (slate of clay origin) date back 600 million years ago (precambric) but greywacke, schists, magma intrusions, quarz, silica, chalky, clay, sandy soils and also found in the same plot. In the Axarquia (Moscatel) slate soils are dotted with white quartz. Both areas are very poor in organic content and have good acidity to make quality wines

HARVEST: The grapes are hand-picked in boxes of 9 kg, with the help of mules. Due to unsual benigne climate in summer, the harvest did not start until the 14th of August.

VINIFICATION: Each plot is initially vinified separately in small tanks of 500-1000 L. Aged sur lees for 10 months.

TASTING NOTES: Bright straw yellow in colour. In the nose the wine has a delicate aroma of white flowers that already suggests freshness, and in the mouth it offers an acidity perfectly integrated with the fruit. A wine that is balanced and complex, at the same time, with a roundness and smoothness from aging in contact with the fine lees. A touch of final bitterness reminds us of the presence of Muscatel. In short, it brings together the elegance and freshness of the PX with the sweetness and frankness of the Muscatel.

A very suggestive and surprising wine. Served very cold, it is ideal for pairing with fish, seafood, rice dishes, vegetables and white meats.

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