An Explosive Wine Tasting: From the Fragrant Whites of Rueda to the Full-Bodied Reds of Ribera del Duero.
Spain is the third largest wine producer in the world, as well as the country with the largest vineyard area, which has given birth to Garnacha and Airen, the two most cultivated grape varieties in the world.
In this scenario lies Castilla y León, the largest autonomous community located in the heart of Spain, boasting a centuries-old heritage and a rich variety of high-quality wines. With a combination of unique terroirs, native grape varieties, and traditional techniques blended with innovative winemaking practices, this region has become one of the favorite destinations for wine enthusiasts.
Ribera del Duero is one of the most famous wine regions in Castilla y León, renowned for its high-quality red wines, mainly based on the Tempranillo grape. This region is characterized by a continental climate and limestone soils, which give the wines remarkable complexity and structure and are often praised for their aging potential.
Another prominent region is Rueda, famous for its fresh and aromatic white wines made from the Verdejo grape. Thanks to the continental climate and sandy soils, Rueda wines are characterized by lively aromas of citrus, herbs, and flowers, with a pleasant acidity that gives them freshness and drinkability.
In addition to these two regions, Castilla y León boasts a number of other emerging and promising wine denominations, including Toro, Bierzo, and Tierra de León, each with its own unique characteristics and distinctive wines to offer.
Wine Tasting
-Victoria: “Castilla y Leon in Spain is one of the biggest regions in terms of extension of Spain. We were in Wine Paris 2024 because France is one of the most important markets for us in terms of exports from Castilla y Leon. And there’s a huge variety of wines in our region. And I think it’s evolving the industry, especially in our region, and it’s a super great opportunity to make not only French customers, but international customers to know the wines of the region.
So here we decided to make a huge stand. There are 34 different producers from Castilla with different denominations of origin”. Inside the region we have nine provinces.
-The best way to get to know wines is to taste them, so with the sommelier Alice, let’s embark on a delightful exploration of these wines. Let’s go!
TASTING 1
So in the region of Castilla Y Leon, we produce a lot of different wines. White, rosé and red wines. One of the most well-known white wines from Spain actually comes from Castilla y Leon, from the appellation for denomination de origin: Rueda. This is Rueda that we’re about to taste, and what is actually magical with the Rueda is that they produce one of the greatest white wines from a grape variety called Verdejo. And this is actually kind of surprising for me as a French because it tastes a lot like Sauvignon Blanc, and the aromas are not like Sauvignon Blanc.
So we’re going to start with this wine that is very similar to Sauvignon Blanc, but not the same thing obviously.
This wine is very typical because it has a lot of floral notes, a lot of green plants notes, and grass notes, which are very important and very typical from the region. And when we taste it.
There is freshness, a bit saline, a bit salty but not really salty, and there are a lot of white fruits that come through, giving it a lot of drinkability.
TASTING 2
So here, it’s another expression of Verdejo de Rueda, because it’s a grape variety that is actually magical as I was telling you, since we can produce many different wines, it has a lot of different expressions depending on the place where it’s planted and the mood of the winemaker.
Yeah. It still 100% Rueda Verdejo, but there’s a huge difference as you can smell it. It’s a winemaker from a very old winery, and today actually it’s a limited edition for the 80th anniversary of the winery.
And so here we can smell lots more buttery notes, we can see that it’s going to be more rounded already by the nose because it has been aged in the barrel for eight months on its own lees. So the sediments that go down for helping with the fermentation.
-This wine is really well-balanced. We can feel the roundness in the mouth. But still, there is a slight acidity at the end that gives length to the wine itself and that gives a willingness to take another sip.
I’m not talking globally of the region Castilla y Leon because it’s so big. Yes, I know. But now we’re going to have red wine from Ribeira del Duero, which is one of the most famous in the region.
TASTING3
Ribeira del Douro is one of the most famous appellations from Spain all over the world, thanks to one of the biggest estates, Vega Sicilia, that everyone has heard about. Here we are trying to present smaller winemakers that have been hand-crafting the wines and who deserve to be really recognized because they are the new face of the appellation. Ribera del Duero is an appellation of full-bodied wines, with very strong notes of Tempranillo, which is the main grape variety, and strong notes of wood, since they age everything in barrels. Here, I chose this one because it’s a typical wine, a typical Ribera del Duero. We can see it from the color, we can see it from the nose. And so in the nose, we have really strong notes of vanilla and musk. That’s typical from the region.
That’s actually what we love about those wines and what we love about having modern wines from Ribera del Duero. It’s because the winemakers, they tend to keep some freshness, even if it’s hard due to global warming. Obviously, they tend to keep the freshness in the grapes and in the vines so that the wine doesn’t get too heavy and keeps being really pleasant to drink. Meaning here, what is dominant is actually the small red and black fruits, like cherry, for example, that we have. And all those are very typical from the grape variety Tempranillo.
-What do you think?
-I think that’s that this wine is perfect for pairing with Chinese food.
-Exactly! Because it can match a lot of different dishes at the same time. And thanks to the spices that are naturally in the wine and those aromas of spices. And since the wine is not too strong or overly tannin, then it mixes and matches with so many things. So it’s a really great approach of Ribeira del Duero.
