Susana Esteban Vinyle 2022/2023

Susana Esteban Vinyle 2022 is a limited-edition white from the Alentejo (Portalegre), standing out for its unique, music-inspired concept and winemaking technique.

The Wine Advocate
RP 94

Reviewed by: Luis Gutiérrez

The 2022 Vinyle was fermented and aged in 500-litre oak barrels that had been used for the 2020 Sidecar with Champagne grower Emmanuel Lassaigne; before that, he had used some for his own Champagne. It comes from an old vineyard, like the others, planted with a mix of local varieties (Arinto, Roupeiro, Alicante Branco, Fernão Pires, Antão Vaz, Moscatel, etc.). The must fermented in barrel and the wine aged for eight months on fine lees. The nose is very expressive — elegant, nuanced, detailed and balanced. It shows great finesse, perfectly integrated oak and an ethereal quality, with energy and lightness. It has 12.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.29 and 5.7 grams of acidity. There is purity and elegance that become more medicinal with time in the glass. This wine was first produced in 2021. 1,850 bottles were filled in September 2023.

Susana Esteban is a Galician winemaker who built her career in Portugal — at Quinta do Côtto and Quinta do Crasto in the Douro, and later in the Alentejo, where she consults for many producers and has run her own project since 2011. She produces 35,000 to 40,000 bottles a year. Every year she collaborates with another winemaker or wine personality on a wine called Sidecar, the two most recent being with Champagne grower Emmanuel Lassaigne and Galician distributor José Luis Aragunde of Ribeira de Fefiñans.

She works in the Portalegre area, a cooler, higher part of the Alentejo where ripening is slower and harvest later than in the south of the region. She works with rented vineyards and buys grapes, but has acquired a property in Alegrete where she has planted five hectares, 60% red and 40% white varieties, which will complement her current portfolio in future.

Published: 4 April 2024