November 6, 2025
Spains most thrilling white - 97-Points and only 6,000 bottles made
M. Ant. De la Riva Macharnudo San Cayetano 2024
The name alone is enough to confuse, but this dry white from what is considered to be a Grand Cru site in Jerez is anything but ordinary. When we tasted the 2022 vintage a few years ago, it completely blew us away. The new 2024 release has earned even higher scores, and to give you the chance to experience it for yourself, we’re offering it at a very sharp price.
With a Wine Advocate score of 97 points hot off the press, and as an added bonus, it was also awarded James Suckling’s #1 Spanish wine of 2025.
“De La Riva keeps releasing some of the finest unfortified whites from Jerez and limited quantities of very old wines” - Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate
The story of M. Ant. de la Riva Macharnudo San Cayetano is one of rediscovery and revival. Founded in the 1920s by Manuel Antonio de la Riva, the estate once stood among Jerez’s finest before being absorbed by Domecq in 1970. Nearly fifty years later in 2017, visionary winemakers Willy Pérez and Ramiro Ibáñez resurrected the historic name, guided by De la Riva’s original vineyard notebooks that placed terroir and viticulture at the heart of quality.
Macharnudo is Jerez’s grand cru, a legendary vineyard first recorded in 1269 and famed for its brilliant white albariza soils. The three-hectare San Cayetano parcel lies on a limestone-rich slope of albariza de barajuelas, producing wines of piercing minerality and deep texture. Here, old-vine Palomino thrives under Atlantic breezes and long hours of sunlight, creating wines that are saline, poised, and unmistakably rooted in their place of origin.
Photo: Calcium carbonate–rich albariza soils and old vines in the Macharnudo Alto vineyard in Jerez
The 2024 vintage captures the essence of this terroir with extraordinary purity and tension. After gentle pressing, the wine was split between stainless steel and old American oak sherry casks, where a delicate veil of flor lent subtle complexity. The final blend, mostly from tank with a touch of barrel-aged wine, is electric and expansive. Layers of iodine, lime and crushed stone unfold with chalky precision, confirming it as one of Spain’s most thrilling whites.
With only 6,000 bottles produced, the 2024 is the highest-scoring vintage yet, earning 97 points from The Wine Advocate. Vibrant, mineral and alive with Atlantic energy, it stands as a defining wine of Jerez’s new-wave generation – proving how profound dry white wine from this region can be.
Photo: winemakers Willy Pérez and Ramiro Ibáñez
M. Ant. De la Riva Macharnudo San Cayetano 2024
98 Points | James Suckling
This opens with iodine, crusted sea salt and a subtle touch of lime, wrapped in delicate floral notes. The palate is saline and expansive, yet ample and incisive, with a deep texture. There’s a solid and angular, almost architectural sense of salinity here, layered and persistent. One of the most compelling expressions of this style. Drink or hold.
97 points | Wine Advocate
The white 2024 Macharnudo San Cayetano comes from a very old plot of Palomino in Pago Macharnudo, San Cayetano, where the natural concentration is very high. San Cayetano has different exposures, and this is selected from the north-facing side, which gives more freshness and elegance to the wines. The year is much better; they have more experience with the vineyard and they gave it less flor, because the wine had the natural concentration and complexity. There might be some 10% of wine with flor (in previous vintages was 15% to 20%) to give it a little bit more salinity. The wine displays a bright, almost fluorescent yellow color and a complex nose, subtle and nuanced rather than explosive. It's still far too young and will gain complexity in bottle and also weight and depth. In two years, this should be a bomb! It has a vibrant palate with pungent sensations and is intensely mineral and very long and sapid. 6,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in September 2025. This is sold exclusively through La Place de Bordeaux.
96 Points | Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux
Hold on to your hats, this is grippy, slim, intense, a slow burn white that reminds you just how brilliant the Palomino grape can be. Gunsmoke reduction on the opening, juicy and fleshy but so understated, soy, sea spray, white pear, grilled almonds, with a touch of Xeres tang. Limestone soils, 3.35ha, harvest August 30, fermented in 615l sherry butts, no temperature control, one year of flor ageing. From the brilliant De La Riva winery, with owners and winemakers Willy Perez and Ramiro Ibanez.