2016 Torres Varietat Recuperada No 23 Forcada Penedes

The 2016 Forcada is a new white from Penedès, produced with a recovered grape variety that names the wine. The wine has 12.5% alcohol and a pH of 2.98 with 8.5 grams of tartaric acid"really cold-climate parameters, quite unusual in a zone like this. The full clusters were pressed and the juice fermented at low temperature in stainless steel and kept with the lees until bottling. They like the evolution in bottle, so they tend to bottle it earlier and give it some time in bottle before it's released. This will be released in late 2019, and the price had not yet been set when I tasted it in February. This is sharp, vibrant, precise and mineral, with very good delineation and definition. I could see this aging in bottle. Forcada is a white grape planted in the Fransola vineyard at some 500 meters altitude. It was harvested at the end of October and still retains a lot of freshness and lowish alcohol. It has high acidity, some eight grams of tartaric acid (without malo), even more in some years. They had done micro vinifications, and it's in these higher altitude zones where they think it works best. Forcada is the name of a hill where they found the ONE vine of this variety from which they got new plants to plant this new vineyard. The grape has a profile that could remind you of Riesling and Albariño. Review Date: February 2019