Verdejos from Segovia, the Other Side of Rueda’s White Wine

Verdejo has been described as Rueda’s ‘sleeping beauty’: an indigenous variety that almost disappeared after the region was ravaged by phylloxera, nurtured back to prominence in the 1970s, before completing its spectacular renaissance by emerging as Spain’s number one white wine. Relished for its fresh aromatic profile and bright citrus texture with herbal nuances, rounded off with a faintly bitter twist, Verdejo is now Rueda’s calling card, accounting for somewhere between 85-90% of its white grapes.  Ask for a "copa de vino blanco” in a typical tapas bar, wherever you are in Spain, and, chances are, Verdejo is what you will be served, such is the variety's easy charm, value for money and ubiquity.  There is, however, another level of Verdejo, literally representing a higher plain: supple, complex and characterful, produced at greater altitude, often from heritage vines, many of which predate the outbreak of phylloxera and continue to resist it.  These wines are to be found in Segovia, in the far south-eastern corner of the Rueda region, as you head towards Madrid.

A different version of Rueda

At an altitude of around 900 metres, the province of Segovia pushes at the extremes of Rueda’s renowned continental climate, the altitude affording the vines a significant diurnal range in temperature (the difference between the day’s high and nighttime low), that promotes a vibrant acidity, imbuing the wines with a lithe freshness.  Winter can be fiercely cold, the summer blisteringly hot, there’s precious little rainfall, but plenty of sunshine and fresh winds to keep disease pressures at bay.  Segovia’s soils are also different to those seen elsewhere in Rueda, with the deep white sand more reminiscent of a beach than a vineyard, providing a contrast to the well-drained clay seen at the heart of the region.  It is these sandy soils that provide a barrier against the phylloxera bug, which cannot tolerate the conditions, meaning the region boasts an enviable living museum of low-yielding old vines that provide highly concentrated wines.

Author Sarah-Jane Evans MW, Chairman of the Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino, vividly recalls her first experience of Segovia’s vineyards, on a visit to the small town of Nieva:  “Entering the town on the far south-eastern tip of the Rueda DO, you could immediately sense it was different.  There’s the altitude, the air seems cooler, fresher. Even the name Nieva itself, with its closeness to ‘nieve’, or ‘snow’, indicated the extreme character on the edge of the denomination.  The wines tasted different (and) they still do. There is something very precious about the wines from Nieva. The best are pure, almost crystalline. Visiting the vineyard you could see the quality of the plant material … pre-phylloxeric vineyards, protected from the phylloxera louse by the nature of the soil.  The vines are centenarian, gnarled and old (so) the fruit they produce is intense. They offer a vision of Rueda in its purest sense.  Rueda has become the best selling white in Spain, and no wonder, but for the essence of Verdejo, don’t miss the wines from Segovia,” she says.  

Peculiarities of this sub zone

Though production volumes are vanishingly low, the wines of the Segovia sub-region have won a modest legion of fans the world over, for their heritage value and  distinctive character in the glass, with many experts convinced that they represent the pinnacle of Verdejo’s potential as a truly world-class variety.

“You could generalise that in Segovia, gone is the soft hay and straightforward fruit notes of a by-the-glass everyday drinker, and instead there is herbaceous complexity combined with oak texture and minerality, recalling the slate peaks in some of the oldest vineyards … for many people, it is the greatest white of Spain and certainly very much a cult wine,” explains Peter Wallbridge, veteran Spanish wine buyer for the UK’s Enotria & Coe.  “Ultimately, this incredible old vine material yields eye-wateringly small quantities of own-rootstock Verdejo … and with careful management and judicious use of oak, produces sublime wines which are complex, rich and decadent.  From a trade perspective, these wines are absolute showstoppers and have proved invaluable (to us) in finding good white Burgundy replacements.  If I were to compare to a Burgundy appellation, it would have to be Meursault, for its generosity,” he adds.

Wallbridge singles out the organic wines of Ossian, produced from lovingly preserved vines up to 200 years old, “some with trunks as thick as olive roots”, as exemplars of the region.  From the Ossian stable of organically-produced wines, Quintaluna 2021, from around 60% pre-phylloxera vines, has aromas of citrus and ripe stone fruit, the palate offering mandarin and blanched hazelnuts combined with a gentle oily texture; the estate’s flagship, Ossian 2020, brings the region’s unchanged landscape alive in the glass, with beguiling herbal notes, a richness of orchard fruits and citrus, combined with complex textural depth from nine of months of ageing on lees; while  the top wine in the stable, Capitel 2019, is produced from the single vineyard ‘Peña Aguada’ plot in Nieva, defined by its unusual slate-veined soils supporting vines up to 200 years old. A symphony of complexity, it has grilled pineapple richness, balanced by a zingy lime acid line with a multi-layered nutty depth and long, ethereal finish.   

Also well worth seeking out: Bodegas Martúe’s Blanco Nieva 2022 Verdejo, the result of a long-term project to restore and renew the region’s viticulture, offers herbal nuances and bright, citrus fruit intensity while its top wine, Verdejo Pie Franco 2022, from specific plots of old vines, hand-picked at night for freshness, brings added richness, tropical hints and mineral depth.  

Also from the town of Nieva, emanating from a family winemaker now in its fifth generation, specialising in ‘natural wines’, Microbio Verdejo 2019 offers nuanced peach, apricot and pithy pink citrus, with textural richness in a bio-dynamically produced, low-intervention unfiltered wine of notable harmony and depth.   Other producers to look out for include Bodegas Miguel Arroyo Izquierdo, in the village of Puras, and, from the nearby town of Santiuste de San Juan Bautista, Bodegas Cerrosol and Esmeralda Garcia for those keen to explore this fascinating, thrilling corner of Rueda.