WTN: 2008 Valdelainos Verdeho, Rueda, Spain

Very nice white Spanish wine with dinner at F. Scott's in Nashville, TN while attending a professional conference. Dim lighting so I didn't check out the color. 13% abv. Gooseberry nose and flavor highlighted by a secondary note of grapefruit and perhaps a bit of grass. Crisp and pleasing, similar to a Sauvignon Blanc. Went nicely with lemon sole and crab vol a vent and chives. I started the meal with onion soup gratinee, a specialty of the restaurant. The jazz ensemble plays on Thursday and the weekend but F. Scott's was booked for a private Christmas party on Thursday so I listened to a lady pianist in the lounge. You can order from a less expensive bar menu or from the full restaurant menu while seated in the lounge. Nice eclectic wine list by the glass (if going with hanger steak and a red wine I would have tried a Faiveley Bourgogne Rouge.) I did speak to the female sommelier who is taking courses to be certified as a Master Sommelier. I will also post a note on my after dinner Port on the Wine Focus.

JC,
I don't mean to pick nits, but as in my response in John S's thread, the grapes of Rueda are Verdejo, SB and Viura, so you probably are tasting SB in your wine. Verdejo actually has quite a different flavor profile.

Mark Lipton

I don't mean to pick nits, but as in my response in John S's thread, the grapes of Rueda are Verdejo, SB and Viura, so you probably are tasting SB in your wine.

Hmmm, according to the importer, this is 100 percent verdejo.

I don't mean to pick nits, but as in my response in John S's thread, the grapes of Rueda are Verdejo, SB and Viura, so you probably are tasting SB in your wine.

Hmmm, according to the importer, this is 100 percent verdejo.

Good call, Keith. This becomes more interesting, then, because according to VS Verdejo doesn't bear much resemblance to SB. That's what makes tasting wines so fun, though!

Mark Lipton

Ah, the bane of Rueda... It's quite obvious to us in Spain that a large number of Rueda producers are adding small amounts of SB to nominally varietal verdejo wines (making use of the European Union regulations allowing for up to 15% of one variety in wines declared as pure varietals of another variety). The reason is that they want more spectacular aromatics, and a little SB goes a long way in that direction. Me, I always recommend Rueda wines that actually are what they purport to be: pure verdejo, or pure sauvignon blanc, or verdejo-viura blends, or verdejo-sauvignon blanc blends, or verdejo-viura-sauvignon blanc blends…

The 2006 vintage was listed as 97% Verdejo and 3% Viura. I can't explain why it resembled a Sauvignon Blanc so closely. (I have also enjoyed Viura-based wines from Spain.)

There's always that wine that comes along and defies your expectation of what that grape/region/vintage should taste like. A prefer to think of them as expanding my understanding of the possibilities. So happens I had a nice Verdejo from Rueda recently, the Aura 2006. Not at all Sauv Blanc-ish.

My `08 Verdejo from Protos has to have some SB in here."Bone dry, lots of citrus, aromatic nose" from across the table. I served well chilled.

A previous bottle, I found this note......>

Colour: watery/pale greenish/yellow.
Nose. citrus & floral, grapefruit.
Palate. Green apple, bone dry, good acidity. Long finish, good with shrimp kebabs.