The Society's White Rioja 2024: Five generations of experience, one outstanding-value white
One of the most distinctive under-£15 white wines in our range, this is made exclusively for us by one of Rioja’s most talented winemakers, Raul Acha, of leading modern winery Bodegas Hacienda López de Haro. Raul has led the winemaking team since 2003 and few winemakers can match his local knowledge, with five generations of winemaking experience in the region.
What makes this wine stand out is the style itself. White Rioja can come in many different forms, and when we launched this wine with the 2018 vintage, we wanted to showcase the more classically styled white Rioja, with a portion of the traditional viura and malvasia grapes aged in barrel. Raul sources the grapes from 60–80-year-old vines in the north-facing, high-altitude Najerilla sub-region of Rioja, which gives the wine its unmistakable freshness. He also employs low-intervention techniques, including spontaneous fermentation and hand harvesting, all of which contribute to the wine’s distinctive personality and high quality.
The result is a wine with plenty of freshness and tension, alongside spicy, nutty notes from the oak, apple-pie and lemon flavours, and a wonderfully creamy mouthfeel that makes it excellent for food pairing. It’s a wine that delivers far more than its price might suggest.
Harriet Kininmonth
The Society's White Rioja 2024
The Society's French Chardonnay 2025: Celebrating the art of the blend
When the more flexible Vin de France category was introduced, allowing wines from different French regions to be blended, we recognised there was an opportunity to come up with some fantastic-value wines for members.
This chardonnay is one of them. We make it with Les Vins Aujoux, who are also behind our Society’s White Burgundy. Utilising their knowledge and excellent source material, we’ve been able to create something that brings together the best of two different worlds: fruit from warm southern vineyards brings body and weight, while grapes sourced from the foothills of the Pyrenees complement this with freshness and elegance.
It takes a certain skill and knowledge to blend wines in this way and judge how the result will evolve, but we’ve been thrilled with the result. It’s a joint effort combining the skill and experience of both parties, and results in making the best wine we can, and further enhances our relationship and mutual respect.
Pierre Mansour
The Society's French Chardonnay 2025
