atance
Atance is the latest project from 'Mr Bobal' Toni Sarrión. Certified organic, the wines hail from Utiel in the province of Valencia. The Atance range includes Cuvée No 1 (a blend of Malvasia and the indigenous Merseguera), a superb unoaked Chardonnay and red from 100% Bobal – another grape native to the region. The wines are grown just 50km from the Mediterranean at an altitude of around 800m, which accounts for their freshness and vivacity, also offering incredible value for money.
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The Vineyards
The Atance wines are sourced from organically farmed vineyards in the high-altitude hills of Valencia. These sites sit between 700 and 900 metres above sea level, where limestone-rich, sandy soils and wide diurnal shifts preserve freshness and aromatic lift in the fruit. The vineyards are largely dry-farmed and planted to old-vine Bobal and Merseguera, native varieties perfectly adapted to the region’s Mediterranean-meets-continental climate.
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Vinification
Atance's white wines, whether blends or single varietal, are fermented separately in stainless steel tanks and use native yeasts.
The Bobal is fermented in a mixture of concrete and stainless steel tanks with light bâtonnage and lees aging for both reds and whites are used.
The Labels
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Benjamin Bridge's Small Lot labels are essentially the estate's micro-cuvées, tiny fermentations that let the team bottle pure terroir snapshots and technique trials that are different each vintage.
The labels are hand written and lightly embossed on the bottle, which caught our attention when we were at the winery. We asked if they could use the Small Lots labels on our bottlings for the NV sparkling program and the new NV Sparkling labels were born!
The bottle is packaged without foil around the cage as well, to ensure that sustainability and as little waste as possible is at the forefront.