Luis Alegre Finca La Reñana 2016

Sometimes you just can't muck about. The front page for this wine has simply to state that it is stunning. White Rioja used to be a big, occasionally confused, oaky beast of a wine. This barrel-fermented behemoth isn't shy either, but it's cleaner and more Burgundian in style.

Plenty of fresh fruit - apple and pear, drizzled with citrus - floats on creamy oak and gorgeous vanilla custard, and the whole kaboodle lingers for even longer than it took to type that description.

A gleaming example of a modern Spanish winery that has taken charge of every aspect of its winemaking.

The winery was formed by Don Luis Alegre in 1968, in the beautiful walled town of Laguardia, Rioja Alavesa. The family owned some of the finest and most sought after vineyard properties in the region. Investment in the late 1990s led to a state of the art, four-floor, gravity-fed winery, and Bodegas Luis Alegre is now taking its wines to the rest of the world.

Bodegas Luis Alegre works to a simple rule, to make the best wines from the remarkable vines that they own. There is a skilled team at the helm, experts in every detail of winemaking, such as oak authority Alejandro Simo, who chooses the finest oak from Missouri and France and oversees its curing at the winery. Winemaker Marta Gallego Ezquerro is a winemaking graduate from the University of Rioja, with extensive experience not just in Rioja itself, but also in Galicia and New Zealand.

The fruit comes from Alegre's single vineyard of 85-year-old vines, which is planted with 90% Viura and 10% Malvasia. It is hand-picked and manually selected before fermentation in new oak from the Loire Valley (as used by the higher end Burgundy producers). After malolactic fermentation it remains in the barrel for six months, being lightly filtered and stabilised before bottling.

Golden straw in colour with aromas of apple and pear anchored by vanilla. Rich and round on the palate, with a hugely impressive combination of fresh green fruits and cream. Deep, complex, well-defined and lingering.