IDENTITY THEFT AND LOSS IN THE SPANISH WINE WORLD
Twenty years ago, and more, few people living outside an area in Castile y León, north west of Madrid would have heard of Denominación de Origen Rueda. Fewer still would have recognised the name of the white wine grape variety which, over the interim years, has placed Rueda firmly on the wine map of Spain. Plus, of those within the demarcated area, if they had been frozen in time, few of them will recognise their wines today, compared to their wines of yesteryear!
The grape variety, Verdejo, had a problem. It oxidised far too quickly, meaning that its shelf life was limited and therefore wines made from this variety had to be drunk very young before it spoiled. Clearly that’s not a good attribute if you want to make wine and sell it out of the local area and indeed abroad. However, there was an intrepid group of growers who had faith in Verdejo and after a great deal of research, with no doubt plenty of trial and error and certainly lots of investment, they made a discovery that was to change the profile, not only of the variety, but also of the DO Rueda itself.
DO Rueda’s identity was built around the fact that when Verdejo is fermented in a wholly different way than it had been, it is capable of wonderful fresh, fruit-driven wine with, actually, some of the taste and aroma characteristics of the ubiquitous, ever popular, Sauvignon Blanc. I remember, perhaps 15 years ago, joining our regular wine tasting group to taste several wines one of which, our Spanish friend Pepe, asked us to taste blind and try and identify it. We all got it wrong. I thought it might be Sauvignon Blanc but with something else too, but as we were told it wasn’t a blended wine, I had to discount that.
Enter Verdejo – and didn’t it do well! Only a few years later I was in Barcelona attending a wine trade fair when I was surprised to see a stand entitled ‘Verdejos of the World’! It had become so popular that other countries had adopted Verdejo, as well as other areas of Spain. Everybody knew its style, its identity – fresh invigorating acidity, kiwi fruit, some citrus notes, faint gooseberry and an interesting vegetal touch, green and yellow pepper, asparagus. It made a brilliant partner for fish, seafood and salads. South East Asian food and shellfish orientated rice dishes love to be paired with Verdejo.
For a number of recent years it has been Verdejo that is the first choice of restaurants as their House Wine – why not, given that it pairs with such a variety of dishes? Also, as is always the case, some producers wanted to up the ante and produce fine wines, far further up the ladder than entry level – for me, Belondrade y Lurton’s utilitarian orange label 100% Verdejo DO Rueda is one of the best white wines of Spain!
A great success story, no? Well, you can perhaps understand my surprise when I read an X (formerly Twitter) post the other day advising that the DO Rueda Consejo Regulador (Ruling Council) had decided to add a further eight permitted grape varieties to the Verdejo and Sauvignon Blanc that have long been allowed. Why – isn’t this likely to cause a loss of identity for DO Rueda?
So, this is what I mean when I say Identity Loss – but what of the Identity Theft, referred to in the title of this article?
In the lengthy post that DO Rueda put out on Social Media and to the press they also defended their inclusion, particularly of the Godello grape variety. Until only the last few years I’ve been something of a voice in the wilderness writing about this superb variety, mainstay of DO Valdeorras, but also grown in other areas of the North West of Spain. Whilst most commentators were, quite rightly talking about Albariño, from the same Green Spain area, I was saying – hey guys check out also Godello, it’s easily as good!
Now, here’s the rub – although DO Rueda does not specifically mention DO Valdeorras (or any of the other areas specialising in Godello) it would seem that they are defending an attack from that DO? Perhaps DO Valdeorras is complaining about the ‘theft’ of their darling variety believing that DO Rueda is doing this simply to cash in on the variety’s popularity, fine reputation and great success. In so doing perhaps their worry is that Rueda will ‘steal’ some of their market share! It’s not all sweetness and light in the wine world, you know!
Rueda points out that no one area ‘owns’ a grape variety, stressing pointedly that in fact Verdejo (which they consider to be theirs) is grown in, I think 20 different areas of production in Spain, as well as abroad, as mentioned above. They add too that some Rueda wineries have already, since the late ‘90s, been making wines with Godello, though not, of course, selling them with the Rueda label because of the unapproved, until now, nature of the grape.
They say that the Godello and the others (a list follows this article) have been added to DO Rueda’s permitted varieties solely on a qualitative basis. They believe that these newbies can add to the aroma and taste profiles of DO Rueda white wines increasing consumers’ enjoyment and, of course, sales. They also say that all this is in response to pleas from growers in the area and from consumers.
As to Identity Loss, I have to say that there surely must be a danger to the DO that their identity will be lost, or at best confused. How can it not be, if different varieties are to be included in blends. They argue, it seems, that there are safeguards – there is a list of just three more ‘main varieties’, Chardonnay, Viognier and Viura. Those on the A List must be used for 75% of any whites and it is now possible to make a DO Rueda white wine as a 100% monovarietal of any of these five. See what I mean about possible Identity Loss?
Plus they have also approved some ‘secondary white varieties’: Garnacha Blanca; Gewürztraminer; Godello; Muscat de Alejandria; Muscat de Petit Grains; and Riesling. They defend these inclusions on the quality basis again, but also by limiting their inclusion to a maximum of 25% in any blend.
So, lovers of DO Rueda wine, like myself – what are your thoughts about the changes, which perhaps will affect the 2024 vintage? The jury is out, but I’m sure we’ll have a lot of tasty fun working on our verdict!
My great thanks to @TecnoVino (my X {Twitter} colleagues) for advising me of the new DO Rueda information contained in this article.