Rueda

The specification dates the first hints of Rueda wine to the late fourteenth century, when wine drunk in Bilbao taverns may have come from the area. In the fifteenth century the wines became known as "vinos de Tierra de Medina". In the late sixteenth century Medina del Campo and Alaejos shared the trade, and for a time town ordinances obliged Madrid merchants to buy Tierra de Medina wine only there. As the fairs of Medina declined, La Nava, La Seca and Rueda took over in the seventeenth century. In the nineteenth century the wine went to France, England and Cuba, helped by the railway, until phylloxera arrived in 1884. The old style was fortified and aged wine, fermented in cellars dug under houses. The first Reglamento was approved by order of 12 January 1980, making Rueda the first designation of origin recognised in Castilla y León.

Rueda lies in the central Duero depression on the northern sub-plateau, in south-west Valladolid with neighbouring parts of Segovia and Ávila. The Duero forms the northern limit, except for Tordesillas and Torrecilla de la Abadesa. The Eresma, Adaja, Zapardiel and Trabancos cross the area from south to north. It is a high plain of 700-870 m tilting slightly to the north. In the north-west, around Medina del Campo, Plio-Quaternary raña deposits of rounded quartzite pebbles in reddish sandy clay, 1-30 m thick, form stony soils with pH 7-8; these are the most intensively planted parishes. Elsewhere Miocene clays, sands, marls and limestones give non-calcic brown soils, and deep sands come from Cretaceous rocks of the Sistema Central.

The climate is continental with Atlantic winds. The mean is about 11.5 °C, extremes run from 37 °C to -10 °C, rain is 400-430 mm, winters are long and summers hot and dry. Growers once dug around each vine in late winter to catch spring water.

The specification calls soil, climate and the native grape the keys to the area's character. The stony, "cascajoso" soils of rounded quartzite limit evaporation in summer and reflect sunlight onto the vines, which helps ripening and the balance of the must. Day-night differences in ripening, sometimes more than 20 °C, keep acidity against sugar and give well-structured wines with freshness and aroma. Verdejo, which the rules call native to Rueda, brings freshness, aromatic intensity and weight in the mouth. The council describes herbal and fruit notes, lively acidity and a lightly bitter finish. Reds are said to be bright in colour with small-fruit aromas. Dorados show nutty and toasted notes from long oxidative ageing; Pálidos show nutty, yeasty or spicy notes from biological ageing.

Authorised white grapes are Verdejo, Sauvignon Blanc, Viura, Palomino Fino, Chardonnay, Viognier, Riesling, Garnacha Blanca, two Muscats and Gewürztraminer; no new Palomino Fino may be registered. Red grapes are Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Garnacha Tinta, Syrah, Cenicienta and Bruñal. The principal varieties are Verdejo, Sauvignon Blanc, Viura, Chardonnay and Viognier among whites and Tempranillo and Cenicienta among reds.

White wines and quality sparkling wines must contain at least 75% of principal varieties. Rosé needs at least 50% red grapes; red uses only red grapes. "Fermentado en barrica" wines ferment and rest on lees in oak. Two liqueur wines keep the old tradition: Dorado, aged oxidatively at least four years, the last two in oak, and Pálido, aged biologically with at least three years in oak.