Badajo, Rueda

Every now and then you find a wine that you really hope is as lovely as it looks: here is a very fine case in point. The hand drawn barrels on the label look like a library and the font looks like it comes from a 15th-Century printing press. It's very romantic, especially in the frosted glass bottle...

This is a bright, fresh and mouth-watering wine with appley and citrus-like acidity, coming from the blend of 80% Verdejo and 20% Viura.

Consistently good, this is one of the best value wines in the region and is a really excellent way to approach the white wines of north-west of Spain.

Picked during the cool of the evenings from vines grown at altitude, the grapes are kept as fresh as possible before a gentle pressing in the winery, which is actually in the town of Rueda itself. The wine long and slow fermentation, in temperature controlled tanks (to keep the temperatures unnaturally cool) thus allowing for a much more textured and intensely flavoured wine as a result - it makes a wine that punches well above its weight.