Barrialto produces natural, terruño-driven white wines from old-vine palomino grapes without fortification from the Jerez region in a micro-winery located in a converted historic tavern in Sanlúcar’s Barrio Alto sub-zone. 

Barrialto Aranzá comes from a small part of a three-hectare, 60-year-old, bush-trained palomino vineyard called La Palma in the Pago Balbaína Baja. The limestone-rich albariza soils in this part of the vineyard are pure tosca cerrada, which Mayetero Rafael Rodríguez prefers, as he says wines coming from this soil have a certain “magnetism,” resulting in naturally balanced wines. Aranzá refers to the traditional agricultural measurement in the area of half a hectare, or one aranzá, that the wine is produced from. 

Tosca cerrada albariza is a very hard sub-type of albariza with a slight grey tint, with chalk levels around 60%, and a cement-like solidity (hence “cerrada,” or closed). When wet, it becomes soft and extremely slippery, and it appears to dissolve. This type of albariza leads to a fine, velvety wine, with a bit more balance and elegance than those from antehojuelas albariza soils.

Vinification – Hand-harvested palomino grapes are de-stemmed and pressed, followed by spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts from the vineyard without temperature control in 500L ex-Manzanilla casks. After fermentation, it rests for two months on the fine lees in the same barrels before being racked into a stainless steel tank for six months before bottling unfined, with only a light paper filtration and minimal additional sulfur  used before bottling.

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