This benchmark Verdejo takes its name from a 17th-century vineyard, or majuelo, called El Pago de Martínsancho. In the 1970’s, massale cuttings from these venerable vines were used to expand the original plot, and it is from these 40-plus-year-old youngsters (all bush-grown and rooted in ancient alluvial gravels, some 30 metres deep) that this wine is now crafted.
The grapes were slowly pressed into two huge glass-lined tanks where the juice fermented naturally before being transferred, via gravity, to the cellars for undisturbed aging in century-old 5,000-litre oak casks (or cubas). Importantly, the barrel cellar here is underground—unusual for Spain. It holds at close to 10ºC year-round, enabling the Rodríguez clan to avoid sulphur additions during winemaking, and to leave the wine to mature slowly, only on its fine lees.
This wine is always juicy and textural, with a fresh racy mouthfeel and the kind of palate-awakening precision that belies its modest price tag. There's a lovely juicy texture leading to a sappy, stony close. Totally unique and 100% authentic, this is for us, benchmark Rueda—at a price almost too good to be true.