Nosis Verdejo Dd’O: Rueda (14.1%; www.Builgine.com; GlobalWines/SantaBarbara) Buil & Gine Wine Co./Rueda/Espana 2020: Med.light gold color; somewhat floral/gardenias/hollyhocks/pineapple slight stony/perfumed talc quite pleasant nose; lightly tart fairly rich/lush rather citric/pineapple/lemony lightly floral/hollyhocks slight stony/perfumed talc slight stony/mineral quite pretty flavor; med.long rather citric/lemony/pineapple some floral/perfumed talc finish; nothing profound nor a lot of depth but quite a quite pretty white for a very attractive price. $17.00 (AV)
More snipplefrask from TheBloodyPulpit:
Verdejo, originally from NorthAfrica, is the signature grape of the Rueda region, where it makes up the dominant planting in Spain. It was revived from near extinction in the 1980’s by Marques de Riscal. A new producer for me who makes mostly Priorat wines.
Tom
Tom it’s not entirely accurate, but pretty close. Verdejo probably did come from N. Africa, and the earliest plantings in Spain were around Toro and Rueda. The original style of Verdejo wasn’t so great anyway, it tends to oxidize and made a rancio type wine, which in the late middle ages was quite the thing. Then phylloxera showed up and a lot of vines were grubbed up. Those that weren’t were grafted over to Palomino and Viura, which produced higher yields.
One guy, Angel Rodríguez, had a very old vineyard and decided that he was not going to graft over or grub up his vines. He’s really the guy who saved the grape from extinction, for which the king eventually gave him a medal. The bodega, Martinsancho, is the premier producer today, and if you get a chance, it’s worth a visit because they’re still using the caves from the 1700s.
Riscal’s contribution was a little different. The owner had studied in Bordeaux and was looking for a way to produce wines similar to white Bordeaux. He contacted Emile Peynaud, who showed him how to make clean, fresh white wines. They decided to buy property in Rueda and use Verdejo. However, Peynaud didn’t fully trust the grape - remember he was the guy who came up with the idea of “noble” grapes and he had a decidedly France-centric outlook, so he convinced them to plant Sauvignon Blanc too. As a result, today both of those grapes are used in Rueda. With Riscal aboard, the grape was set for a revival, but its real champion was Rodriguez.
Thanks for getting the true story out there, Greg.
I’d heard the name of Angel but didn’t bother to include it. I’ll definitely look for a btl of his wine.
And Rancio wines Are not a bad thing. That’s what Priorat used to be all about.
That’s a whole separate story! When Barbier, Perez, et. al. showed up, they saw that there were old vines of Garnacha and Cariñena. The latter had been planted in the 1800s for the yields, but after phylloxera most vineyards were abandoned. But Perez and the others didn’t trust those grapes, because who makes age-worthy wines from those, so they planted Syrah, Cab, and Tempranillo. Initially they talked about the old vines but didn’t really feature them - it was all about marketing and folks like Robt Parker fell for it. Eventually, Perez especially realized that some of those old Cariñena vines had serious potential, and he more or less became the champ for that grape.