Esmeralda Garcia Santyuste
Country: Spain
Region: Segovia
Grapes: Verdejo
Vintage: 2022
Esmeralda García is a young Spanish winemaker working exclusively with Verdejo in her hometown of Santiuste de San Juan Bautista after several stints learning her craft with some of Spain's leading natural winemakers. The vineyards she tends have been in her family for centuries where the dry, sandy soils have allowed the pre-phylloxera vines to thrive on their original rootstocks for up to 210 years. Esmeralda has four sites that all vary in altitude and soil composition, allowing her to bottle several cuvées with strikingly different profiles and the arid climate enables her to work without pesticides or chemical additives in the vineyard and cellar.
Santyuste is Verdejo from the 4 vineyard sites with an average altitude of 850m. Fermented in stainless steel and aged on the lees for 3 months before bottling without sulphur or filtration, it's fragrant and energetic with citrus blossom, dried herb and chalky mineral aromas.