Spanish Verdejo: panel tasting results

Beth Willard, Sarah Jane Evans MW and Christine Parkinson tasted 120 wines, with one Exceptional, one Oustanding and 77 Highly Recommended.

Spanish Verdejo panel tasting scores

120 wines tasted

Exceptional 1

Outstanding 1

Highly recommended 30

Recommended 75

Commended 9

Fair 2

Poor 1

Faulty 1

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their current-release vintages made from at least 85% Verdejo produced in any region of Spain.

Verdejo makes up a huge 40% of all white wine sold in Spain, and yet the most important producing region, Rueda, sends less than 15% of its wines to overseas markets. So what do the Spanish see in this variety that others are missing?

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the top-scoring Spanish Verdejo wines

While grown throughout Spain, it is in the expansive region of Castilla y León where the Verdejo grape reigns. High on the windy and sparsely populated plains of the Meseta Central, north of Madrid, the variety fully develops its showy lime and tropical aromas with racy acidity.

This tasting aimed to attract Verdejo from all over Spain, and while there were a handful of wines from producers in Rioja, Zamora, La Mancha and Almansa, the majority (110 out of 120) were from DO Rueda. Sarah Jane Evans MW commented that ‘it was a shame there weren’t more examples from (Vino de la Tierra) Castilla y León, where producers are making some really exciting wines’, and are often operating outside the more restrictive rules of individual DOs.

Most of the wines tasted were from the 2020 vintage, with just a few older (but recent) vintages. While the tasting didn’t allow for a comprehensive comparison of regions and years, it certainly highlighted some important stylistic variations which are interesting to explore. The dorado (traditional, oxidative style) wine aside, half of the 12 top-scoring wines were unoaked, with the other half either oaked or with significant lees contact.

The wines that were more fruit-forward and unoaked offered typical Verdejo character – citrus fruit, pineapple, apple and nutty aromas – and were particularly praised for their concentration, intensity and palate weight. Evans noted ‘minerality, salinity and a refreshing bitterness’ as common themes.

The higher-scoring oaked wines, and wines with extended time on lees, lost nothing of the typicity of young and fresh Verdejo, but as Christine Parkinson explained: ‘Oak has given the wines complexity and toned down the fruit.’ The resulting wines offered more refinement and depth of flavour, somehow adding both volume and elegance at once.

Verdejo at a glance

Area planted 25,504ha (July 2020), just under half that volume planted in DO Rueda

Vineyard share Verdejo is the third most widely planted white variety behind Airén and Viura, and constitutes 8% of all whites planted in Spain

Regions All over Spain from Valencia to La Mancha and Rioja

Biggest growing area Castilla y León, which includes nine DOs; there are 72 wineries producing Verdejo in DO Rueda alone

There were many wines in this tasting that offered a reason why Verdejo is so popular in Spain. Consistency in aromas and flavours – as Parkinson noted, ‘vibrant and juicy citrus fruit’ – produces an approachable and easily understood style of wine. But as the scores show, the potential of the variety lies in its ability to produce weightier, more substantial wines with versatility in food matching, as well as an ability to age.

The highest-scoring wine, De Alberto’s Dorado NV, is atypical in the context of modern Verdejo, but offers a glimpse into the history of the variety and the region of Rueda, where fortified wines have been made for centuries. Made in demijohns exposed to the sun and then aged in a solera already 70 years old, the wine certainly rivals more famous fortified wines from Andalucía.

So what can you expect? The scores confirm consistency, intensity, a refreshing wine perfect as an aperitif and, at the higher end, a gastronomic white whose versatility and diversity has been underestimated – although not by Spanish drinkers.

The top scoring Spanish Verdejo wines: 

The judges

Beth Willard is buying director for independent merchant Winetraders UK, with a focus on Spain and Eastern Europe, and former buying manager at Direct Wines. A member of Spain’s Gran Orden de Caballeros de Vino, she was a joint Regional Chair for Spain at DWWA 2021

Sarah Jane Evans MW is an awarded journalist, author and broadcaster, and a DWWA Co-Chair. Author of The Wines of Northern Spain (Infinite Ideas, 2018), she is also chair of Spain’s Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino

Christine Parkinson is co-founder of Brimful Drinks, developing products in the no & low-alcohol sector. She was formerly at Michelin-starred Hakkasan Group over 18 years as a buyer, latterly as its group head of wine. Numerous career awards include The Caterer’s Wine & Spirits Ambassador Catey in 2018

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