Verdejo

Verdejo is the grape of Rueda, on the high plateau of Castile and León, and its modern career began with a deliberate rescue. The region had been making an oxidised, sherry like wine from it for centuries when Marqués de Riscal arrived in the early 1970s looking for a source of white wine, brought in Émile Peynaud as a consultant and rebuilt the style around cool fermentation and protection from air.

Protection from air is the whole technical story. Verdejo oxidises unusually readily, so the fruit is now very often picked at night and pressed cold, and the wine is handled under inert gas. Done properly it gives a distinctive dry white: citrus and white peach over a strong herbal and fennel note, with a bitter almond twist on the finish and a fuller body than the region's altitude would suggest.

The plateau explains the balance. Rueda sits at around 700 to 800 metres, so the days are hot enough to ripen the fruit fully and the nights are cold enough to keep the acidity. Some producers now age it on lees or in oak, which suits the grape's weight, though the fresh unoaked style is what made its name.