A Stellar Verdejo

With this wine they honor all those who, without complexes, forge their own path. They are explorers. Their destination lies in the unknown. This is a wine for those who seek to discover rather than reaffirm themselves. If you have come this far, then this is a wine for you.
Production of this wine from the Rueda Designation of Origin is limited to 12,000 bottles per year in order to guarantee highly demanding quality standards.

Technical Sheet

Winery: Estate Vineyards, at Bodegas de Crianza de Pozaldez. Pozaldez (Valladolid),
D.O. Rueda
Vintage: 2018
Alcohol: 13.5%
Variety: 100% Verdejo

Tasting notes: In tasting, it shows a brighter golden color than the 2016 vintage since, although it has spent longer aging, it has had less time in bottle. Its movement preserves freshness very well, yet it is already beginning to feel unctuous, elegant and undoubtedly sensual.

The nose is highly intense, very clean, with great clarity in the varietal aromas that predominate at first. With aeration, the aging and the contribution of the lees emerge. It is not as integrated as the previous vintage, which had more time in bottle to come together, but it is already beginning to offer excellent sensations for lovers of complex and elegant white wines. It gains in freshness and fruit compared with the 2018 vintage, although it remains slightly behind in complexity and bouquet presence.

On the palate, it opens smoothly and freshly, with abundant fruit and liveliness across the palate. Power, elegance and silkiness, where the lees and oak give it depth without losing the freshness of the variety. The aftertaste combines fruit and spices, differing from the previous vintage.

Serving temperature: 6-8ºC

Winemaking: From 32 hectares of vineyard planted with 100% Verdejo, quality grapes are selected to make this magnificent wine. Liberso is the first wine created at this winery: interesting and distinctive, the result of discovering the limits held by several qualities of this grape variety, Verdejo.

To achieve this result, 19 different wines were made. These wines went through several processes: the first in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks and aged on its lees for 9 months to preserve its spontaneity. Separately, 18 wines were fermented and aged for 9 months in French, American and Hungarian oak barrels from 12 of the world’s finest coopers and in 3 different volumes: 225, 300 and 500 liters.

Pairing: at Made in Spain Gourmet we recommend it with oily fish and seafood, as well as rice dishes, young or creamy cheeses and all kinds of rice preparations. It would also be excellent as an aperitif. One of those full-bodied wines you can even enjoy on its own, with a good book.

Liberso is the first D.O. Rueda wine characterized and marketed by vintage. Each wine faithfully reflects the peculiarities of its year, marked by a common and unmistakable style.

The Verdejo grape

The Verdejo grape has lived for more than ten centuries in the Rueda Designation of Origin. Its character is determined by its aroma and flavor, with nuances of scrubland herbs, fruity touches and excellent acidity. Extract, a factor in the personality of great white wines, is perceived through its volume and its characteristic bitter touch, which brings a flash of originality to the palate, accompanied by great fruity expression. These are highly harmonious wines, whose lingering impression after tasting invites you to continue enjoying them.

The Continental Climate

The D.O. Rueda rises between 700 and 870 meters above sea level, with flat yet high-lying lands that endure very long, cold winters, short springs with late frosts, and hot, dry summers, disturbed only by untimely storms. This factor forces the vines to seek water resources deep in the subsoil, more so than in other areas of Europe.

Budbreak is usually late, and pruning work may continue until March or early April. Rainfall is scarce, reaching minimums of 300 liters and maximums of 500 liters per year.

In the past, at the end of winter, a hollow was dug around each vine to concentrate spring water.
At the beginning of summer, a “shelter” was made by piling the soil back around the vine, often burying it halfway to protect it from summer evaporation. Today, improved cultivation and the introduction of drip irrigation compensate for these tasks, which are now impossible to carry out.

On the other hand, the difference in temperature between day and night is the secret behind the balance between the sugar the grape gains from the sun and the acidity it does not lose during the cool nights. Sunshine reaches 2,600 hours per year, which would be excessive were it not for the late ripening of the grape.

Because of its latitude, the Rueda area lies within the Mediterranean sphere. However, because of its altitude, it is considered to have continental influence.

The gravelly soil

The D.O. Rueda is located in the central sector of the depression formed by the Duero River, constituting a high plateau of gentle relief and slopes exposed to Atlantic winds. Broad alluvial and diluvial terraces line the banks of the Duero and its tributaries, the Trabancos, Zapardiel and Adaja.

These are brown soils, rich in calcium and magnesium, easy to work and stony, with good aeration and drainage, and limestone outcrops at the highest points of the undulations. Permeable and healthy, their texture ranges from sandy-silty to silty.

The pH of these soils ranges between 7 and 8. This geological substrate has evolved at the surface into brown soils over stony allochthonous deposits, giving rise to the typical “gravelly” terrain where the best vineyards of the D.O. Rueda are planted.

White grape varieties

The D.O. Rueda is one of the few European wine regions specialized in the production of white wine and in the protection and development of its native variety, Verdejo.

The strong personality of Verdejo (the main variety), the addition of other varieties, and a vineyard that has learned to survive the harshness of its almost hostile environment in order to give the wine the very best of itself, define the profile of Rueda white wines.

The varieties have appeared throughout the history of the D.O. Rueda. In the 1930s, the Palomino Fino variety began to be planted in the area, the origin of flor-aged fortified wines, with higher yields than other varieties and capable of producing wines similar to those of Jerez, which were in great demand at the time. It thus became the majority variety in the Medina district at that time (the C.R.D.O. Rueda does not allow new plantings of this variety). It is a variety that produces light wines of low acidity, very suitable for making wines with biological aging.

The Viura variety, with its Rioja reputation, began to be cultivated in the 1950s, at a time when the classic model for white wine involved wooden barrels. This variety brought an aristocratic touch to Castilian table wine, since these were times when the virtues of Verdejo had yet to be discovered and it was cultivated at both ends of the spectrum, from fortified to everyday wines. It is used in white wines to provide greater lightness and a touch of acidity.

Sauvignon Blanc (a main variety) made its appearance in the 1970s. Originally from the French Loire, it adds a floral component with aromas of grapefruit and passion fruit, as opposed to the flinty touch of Loire Sauvignon, differences due mainly to the greater number of sunshine hours compared with the Loire and Bordeaux. However, they share a short vegetative cycle, which in the French area is due to northerly latitude and in Castile to altitude. The D.O. Rueda is a pioneer in adopting this French variety, bringing a modern and international character to the region.

Viognier, authorized in 2019, is a variety that contributes aromas of stone fruit and honey with Muscat-like notes.

Chardonnay, authorized in 2019, is a variety of medium-low aromatic intensity that brings notes of ripe fruit to wines and, over time, can express aromas of butter and walnut.