Sexto Elemento Orange 2019 (sweet) Special

Vino Sexto Elemento is a family project started in 2000 in Venta del Moro (near Utiel) and has become a benchmark for natural wines made in the Utiel-Requena area although they are not under the D.O.

6º Elemento Orange, their first sweet wine made in a somewhat peculiar way, like almost everything the winery does.

Although the label indicates the viura variety, which is also known as macabeo in many areas, particularly in the area around Utiel, this same grape was called Mari Sancho...

The idea was to make a natural sweet wine, with grapes harvested late, almost raisins, and left to ferment with their skins for no more and no less than 250 days (more than 8 months!). After this period, the wine is transferred to French oak barrels for 12 months of aging. Different techniques have been used to elaborate this special version, first from the orange wine due to its prolonged maceration with skins, then the Tokaji method, as the renowned Hungarian sweet wines are made by adding botrytised grapes (ripe grapes infected by the noble fungus that concentrates the sugars and provides authentic flavours), as well as a prolonged ageing in barrels with soleras of older sweet wines such as Fondillón, which will provide more complexity to the bottled wine.

Due to the high sugar content in the grapes and must, the wine has a sweet wine character with sweet notes reminiscent of dried apricots, baked apples with cinnamon, but also aromas of mountain herbs that make the wine taste fresher. Good balance on the palate shows that it is a great sweet wine and its 17º of alcohol are not even noticeable.

No wonder it was the dessert wine of choice at Copenhagen's famous Noma restaurant...