Winex House White Alert: Super-Old-Vine Verdejo from Vidal + Vidal!

The Vidal y Vidal Verdejo 2015 is a unique situation that presents this rather ubiquitous (in Spain) and often undistinguished varietal as a legitimate contender for your house white.  There are a lot of examples of Verdejo that are just plain and one-dimensional and others that, while they have fruit, can take on a rather 'sweaty' character.  Then there's this one, which has fruit, complexity and vigor, a prototype Spanish white perfectly poised to sip along with a variety of foods.

What's their secret?  How do they make something that stands above the crowd?  Well, we're going to take a wild guess that location has something to do with it.  The property is in the area of Rueda in northern Spain called La Seca, outside the village of the same name.  'La Seca', as a lot of Southern California natives who live among a lot of things with Spanish names, means 'the dry', an apt description for this high, arid plain next to Toro.

This spot is an old river bed strewn with the round stones similar to the galet of the southern Rhone.  The underlying soils are sand and this 21-acre Finca El Alto sits at 2300 feet elevation.  The continental climate provides warm days and chilly nights, which helps maintain the brisk acidity that makes this wine 'hum'.   So, you've got the weather which proved long ago as uniquely suitable for this varietal and a very special, rocky spot within that micro-climate.  But then so do a lot of other bodegas.

It is our guess that what gives the Vidal y Vidal a couple of 'extra gears' over the rank and file, and kind of puts it in a class by itself relative to the genre, are the vines themselves.  These thick-trunked bush vines are over 80 years old and the yields are about 2-3 kilos per vine (that's really low).  They are farmed sustainably and harvested by hand in the early morning so the bunches get into the winery while they are still cool.  This provides the opportunity for freshest flavors possible, brought forward by fermenting in small stainless steel tanks using only native yeasts.  The whole idea is to present a wine with soul and plenty of verve, and that they do...better than the rest.

We liked last year's version, a success given the general difficulty of the 2014 vintage.  But this 2015, from a ripe, very successful harvest for Spanish whites, has more flesh and evident fruit on top of its insistent verve.  Quince, apricot, maybe a little whiff of toasted grain, sleekly infused minerality and a brisk finish, this one can play alone but really comes alive with food.  Kind of like Sauvignon Blanc meets a white Rhone, it's rich in texture from those old vines but streamlined and racy on the palate. Mind-blowing!

It’s a helluva lot of wine for $16.98 and will be one of your go-to whites of the summer, I guarantee it…