2024 De La Riva Macharnudo Blanco San Cayetano (Pre-arrival)

James Suckling 98, Top 100 Wines of 2025, Rank: #1 – “This opens with iodine, crusted sea salt and a subtle touch of lime, wrapped in delicate floral notes. The palate is saline and expansive, yet ample and incisive, with a deep texture. There’s a solid and angular, almost architectural sense of salinity here, layered and persistent. One of the most compelling expressions of this style. Drink or hold.”

Wine Advocate/Luis Gutierrez 97 – “The white 2024 Macharnudo San Cayetano comes from a very old plot of Palomino in Pago Macharnudo, San Cayetano, where the natural concentration is very high. San Cayetano has different exposures, and this is selected from the north-facing side, which gives more freshness and elegance to the wines. The year is much better; they have more experience with the vineyard and they gave it less flor, because the wine had the natural concentration and complexity. There might be some 10% of wine with flor (in previous vintages was 15% to 20%) to give it a little bit more salinity. The wine displays a bright, almost fluorescent yellow color and a complex nose, subtle and nuanced rather than explosive. It’s still far too young and will gain complexity in bottle and also weight and depth. In two years, this should be a bomb! It has a vibrant palate with pungent sensations and is intensely mineral and very long and sapid. 6,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in September 2025.”