Rueda & Toro

Rueda Verdejo: lime, fennel and a light bitter-almond finish - crisp, fresh, easy.

Spain's go-to white. Verdejo gives citrus, green melon and fennel with firm acidity and a faint bitter finish, mostly unoaked and made to drink young. Very food-friendly and usually good value.

Spain's go-to white. Verdejo gives citrus, green melon and fennel with firm acidity and a faint bitter finish, mostly unoaked and made to drink young. Very food-friendly and usually good value.

Toro red: dark, ripe and powerful Tinta de Toro - chocolate, black fruit, soft tannin.

Tinta de Toro is the local Tempranillo, with thicker skins, more tannin and less acidity. Ripe and generous, the reds taste of plum, chocolate and spice, with oak adding vanilla. Good Crianza is a great value for the power.

Tinta de Toro is the local Tempranillo, with thicker skins, more tannin and less acidity. Ripe and generous, the reds taste of plum, chocolate and spice, with oak adding vanilla. Good Crianza is a great value for the power.

Fried and grilled seafood with young Rueda Verdejo.

Prawns, grilled fish, calamari or a plate of tapas. Verdejo's high acidity and light bitterness act like a squeeze of lemon, and the salt in the food softens the wine.

Prawns, grilled fish, calamari or a plate of tapas. Verdejo's high acidity and light bitterness act like a squeeze of lemon, and the salt in the food softens the wine.

Tinta de Toro: local Tempranillo - dark, tannic, ripe, with chocolate notes.

A Toro-adapted form of Tempranillo, lower in yield, more tannic and lower in acidity. It gives full, plush reds of real concentration, made best from old vines.

A Toro-adapted form of Tempranillo, lower in yield, more tannic and lower in acidity. It gives full, plush reds of real concentration, made best from old vines.

Roast lamb or grilled chops with a Toro Reserva.

Rich, fatty lamb off a wood fire matches Toro's concentration and tannin. Serve the red at about cellar temperature, not warm.

Rich, fatty lamb off a wood fire matches Toro's concentration and tannin. Serve the red at about cellar temperature, not warm.

Malvasía Castellana: Toro's rare white - ripe pear, flowers and texture.

One of Toro's main local whites, grown in small amounts and bottled alone by a few producers. A good talking point, and worth ordering when you see it.

One of Toro's main local whites, grown in small amounts and bottled alone by a few producers. A good talking point, and worth ordering when you see it.

Check before you go — details here may have changed.

Dorado = Rueda's old, nutty, sherry-style fortified white.

Dry, oxidised and fortified, made from Verdejo in a solera-style system and nearly lost in the 1970s.

Dry, oxidised and fortified, made from Verdejo in a solera-style system and nearly lost in the 1970s.

Sandy, stony soils kept phylloxera out, so very old vines survive.

Loose sand is hard on the root louse, so both Rueda and Toro still hold old vines on their own roots, some pre-phylloxera. They crop lightly and ripen with more depth than younger, grafted plantings.

Loose sand is hard on the root louse, so both Rueda and Toro still hold old vines on their own roots, some pre-phylloxera. They crop lightly and ripen with more depth than younger, grafted plantings.

José Pariente: family estate whose Verdejo and Finca La Medina set the pace.

A leading family house in Rueda, known for Verdejo, the Finca La Medina cuvée and a Sauvignon Blanc. The Verdejo is barrel-fermented and lees-stirred, so it is fresh with extra texture.

A leading family house in Rueda, known for Verdejo, the Finca La Medina cuvée and a Sauvignon Blanc. The Verdejo is barrel-fermented and lees-stirred, so it is fresh with extra texture.

Numanthia: the estate that put Toro on the international map; start with Termes.

Founded in 1998 at Valdefinjas and now part of LVMH, Numanthia farms old, own-rooted vines. Termes and Numanthia are its core reds; Termanthia is the top cuvée.

Founded in 1998 at Valdefinjas and now part of LVMH, Numanthia farms old, own-rooted vines. Termes and Numanthia are its core reds; Termanthia is the top cuvée.

Toro icon reds: ungrafted, 100-year-old vines, new oak and decades of life.

The top Toro wines come from the oldest own-rooted vines and are made in tiny volumes. Dense, deeply coloured and built to age, they compete with Ribera's icons and Priorat.

The top Toro wines come from the oldest own-rooted vines and are made in tiny volumes. Dense, deeply coloured and built to age, they compete with Ribera's icons and Priorat.

Celebration red: Teso La Monja Victorino or Numanthia Termanthia.

Toro's old-vine icons, from ungrafted plots and built to age. Open with roast lamb.

Toro's old-vine icons, from ungrafted plots and built to age. Open with roast lamb.

Wild yeast, lees and French oak make weightier Verdejo.

Top estates ferment on native yeast and age the wine on its lees, or in barrel, for a long time. The result is rounder and nuttier, with a creamy texture and good ageing potential.

Top estates ferment on native yeast and age the wine on its lees, or in barrel, for a long time. The result is rounder and nuttier, with a creamy texture and good ageing potential.

White Malvasía and light carbonic reds: the lighter side of Toro.

Toro is not only big reds. It also makes light, juicy carbonic-maceration reds and small amounts of white from Malvasía Castellana and Verdejo. Rare, so worth ordering.

Toro is not only big reds. It also makes light, juicy carbonic-maceration reds and small amounts of white from Malvasía Castellana and Verdejo. Rare, so worth ordering.

Carbonic maceration: Toro's light, juicy reds released fast.

Whole grapes ferment inside the berry before pressing, giving a purple, fruity, low-tannin red. Tinta de Toro ripens early enough for the method, and the wines are released from November of harvest.

Whole grapes ferment inside the berry before pressing, giving a purple, fruity, low-tannin red. Tinta de Toro ripens early enough for the method, and the wines are released from November of harvest.

Bodegas de Alberto: one of the few houses still making Rueda's sherry-style Dorado.

A Rueda producer that keeps the old oxidative Dorado alive. Think dry and fortified, closer to Sherry than to fresh Verdejo.

A Rueda producer that keeps the old oxidative Dorado alive. Think dry and fortified, closer to Sherry than to fresh Verdejo.

Belondrade y Lurton: La Seca pioneer of barrel-fermented Verdejo; Quinta Apolonia is the purest.

Didier Belondrade set up in 1994 to make one great white from Verdejo. The wine is fermented and aged in French oak and is built to age.

Belondrade, founded in 1994 in La Seca, is the estate most responsible for showing that Verdejo can be a serious, oak-aged white. Didier Belondrade's idea was to make one great wine rather than a range, and the flagship is an assemblage drawn from many small plots, each reflecting its own soil. The wine ferments with wild yeasts and rests on its lees in 300-litre French oak barrels for most of a year, which adds weight, a toasty, nutty edge and the ability to improve in bottle. Quinta Apolonia is the most varietal expression and the one to open to taste Verdejo itself. Expect more texture and less zip than the bar-fridge style, closer in spirit to a good white Burgundy than to Sauvignon. Serve it only lightly chilled, with roast chicken, rich fish or mushrooms, and give older vintages time to open up.

Javier Sanz: family house behind V Malcorta, a rare Verdejo biotype saved from extinction.

Sanz's old family vineyard dates from 1863. V Malcorta, made from the rescued Malcorta type, is a salty, mineral, unoaked Verdejo that sells out.

Most Verdejo is a blend of clones chosen for yield, but Javier Sanz keeps something different. The Malcorta biotype, a rare Verdejo type that had nearly disappeared, was saved from extinction by Sanz, and his family's vineyard - the oldest family-owned in Rueda, dating from 1863 - supplies the fruit. V Malcorta is made without oak and tastes salty, mineral and tight rather than showy; the first release was in 2012 and production is small enough that it has sold out every year since. It is a Verdejo for people who find the usual style too simple, and one built to age. Because production is tiny, it is mostly found in specialist shops and on serious restaurant lists rather than supermarkets. Treat it as a collector-style find and serve it cool, with seafood or soft cheese.

Teso La Monja Victorino: old-vine flagship aged in new French oak.

The estate's top red, with grapes selected berry by berry and aged in new French oak. Alabaster is the estate's other old-vine bottling.

Teso La Monja is the Eguren family's Toro project, begun in 2007 with vineyards around Valdefinjas and Villabuena del Puente and now farming a large holding of ungrafted native vines, some up to 130 years old. The soil is fresh and mainly clay with chalky veins and surface gravel, on north-facing sites with long growth cycles that help the wines keep freshness. Victorino is the flagship: the grapes are selected individually, fermented in oak vats, taken through malolactic fermentation and aged in new French barrels, giving a deep, polished red built for ageing. Alabaster is the estate's other old-vine bottling. Both reward patience, so give them time and decant. Production is modest, around a hundred and forty thousand bottles a year across the whole estate. If you like Ribera icons or Priorat, this is the Toro to try.

Numanthia Termanthia: Toro's collector wine from the oldest, ungrafted plots.

Made from vines of 120 years and more on one small named vineyard. Termanthia is dense, powerful and built for the long haul.

Termanthia is the top wine of Numanthia, the estate that brought Toro international fame. It comes from one small vineyard, Teso de los Carriles, planted ungrafted before phylloxera; the vines are reportedly 120 to 150 years old, trained as low goblets in sandy, pebbly soil over clay at around 620 to 750 metres. Crops are very small, so production is limited and the price high. Expect a deep, dense red built on black fruit and spice, made to age for years rather than to be opened young. Numanthia is now part of LVMH, and its wines have followed Toro's rise in reputation and price. Decant it, serve it with roast lamb or aged sheep's cheese, and treat it as a one-off celebration bottle. If you want the house style at a gentler price, taste Termes first.

Pintia: Vega Sicilia's Toro estate, set up in 1997 on old vines.

The Álvarez family, owners of Vega Sicilia, founded Pintia in Toro. It is the Ribera house's single Toro wine.

Pintia is Vega Sicilia's Toro project, founded in 1997 by the Álvarez family, who have owned the Ribera house since 1982. The estate is at San Román de Hornija, and it makes a single Toro, Pintia, from Tinta de Toro. It is a good way to see how one great house reads the same grape in a different place: Toro sits lower and warmer than Ribera del Duero, on sandy ground, and its vineyards include very old own-rooted plots. If you are travelling the Duero, the instructive exercise is to taste Pintia next to a Vega Sicilia Ribera wine and compare altitude and soil in the glass. Expect a concentrated, dark red in the powerful Toro mould, best with roast lamb, grilled meats or aged cheese.

Rueda Dorado and Pálido: sherry-style whites, nutty and dry - a Verdejo few know.

Before fresh Verdejo took over, Rueda made oxidative, fortified Dorado and flor-aged Pálido. Both nearly died out and are quietly coming back.

Fresh, steel-fermented Verdejo is a modern idea. Older Rueda wine was oxidative, and Rueda still makes two sherry-like styles. Dorado is a dry, fortified, oxidised white made in a solera-style system, a Sherry-like wine made from Verdejo. Pálido is aged under a layer of yeast (flor), as Fino is, and is paler, tangier and lighter. Dorado almost vanished in the late 1970s and is now a tiny revival, with a handful of houses such as Bodegas de Alberto and the Cachazo family keeping it going. It is a connoisseur's curiosity rather than an everyday wine, and it works as a good gift for anyone who loves Sherry. Serve Dorado cool, in a small glass, with almonds, cured sheep's cheese or olives. Production is small, so buy it when you see it.

Local finds: Javier Sanz V Malcorta, a Rueda Dorado or San Román Malvasía.

Three bottles few friends will know: a salty, mineral rare Verdejo type; a sherry-style Rueda; and Toro's white Malvasía.

The most interesting bottles from these two appellations are the ones that break the stereotype. V Malcorta from Javier Sanz is made from a nearly extinct Verdejo biotype saved by the family; it is unoaked, salty and mineral, made in small quantity and sold out each year, so ask for it at a good vinoteca in Rueda or Valladolid. Dorado from Bodegas de Alberto or the Cachazo family shows what Rueda tasted like before steel tanks: dry, nutty and fortified, a gift for Sherry lovers. And San Román's Malvasía, from the main white grape of Toro, shows that the reds are not the whole story. All three are small productions and drink better young, though V Malcorta and Dorado will improve. These are the bottles most likely to start a conversation at the table.

Old bush vines, some well over a century old, crop tiny and taste dense.

Low-trained, widely spaced bush vines on their own roots give very small crops. The oldest, such as Numanthia's Termanthia plots and Teso La Monja's long-lived parcels, are the raw material for the region's top wines.

The region's best wines start with the vines. In Toro, the Eguren family's Teso La Monja farms a large holding of ungrafted vines around Valdefinjas, some up to 130 years old, and Numanthia describes more than a hundred plots averaging 50 to 100 years, with the Termanthia vines at 120 to 150. They are low-trained in the traditional goblet shape and spaced wide apart, which lets them cope with a dry, hot climate and keeps crops very small. Rueda has the same story on a smaller scale: bush vines about a century old on sandy soil at 700 to 800 metres, in some cases cropping at a fraction of what is permitted. Old-vine Verdejo is often blended into mainstream wines rather than bottled alone, so single-site bottlings are the way to taste it. The effect is concentration without heaviness, a long finish, and wines that evolve for a decade or more.

A high, flat plateau: hot days, cold nights, fresh wines.

Both appellations sit on the open Duero plateau, with sunny days and cold nights. That swing lets grapes ripen fully while holding on to acidity - the reason Verdejo stays crisp and Tinta de Toro stays lively.

Both appellations sit on the open Duero plateau, with sunny days and cold nights. That swing lets grapes ripen fully while holding on to acidity - the reason Verdejo stays crisp and Tinta de Toro stays lively.

In the glass: Crisp, aromatic Verdejo; ripe but balanced Toro reds

Sandy, stony soils kept phylloxera out, so very old vines survive.

Loose sand is hard on the root louse, so both Rueda and Toro still hold old vines on their own roots, some pre-phylloxera. They crop lightly and ripen with more depth than younger, grafted plantings.

Loose sand is hard on the root louse, so both Rueda and Toro still hold old vines on their own roots, some pre-phylloxera. They crop lightly and ripen with more depth than younger, grafted plantings.

In the glass: Concentration and length; old-vine bottlings are denser and age better

Old bush vines, some well over a century old, crop tiny and taste dense.

Low-trained, widely spaced bush vines on their own roots give very small crops. The oldest, such as Numanthia's Termanthia plots and Teso La Monja's long-lived parcels, are the raw material for the region's top wines.

The region's best wines start with the vines. In Toro, the Eguren family's Teso La Monja farms a large holding of ungrafted vines around Valdefinjas, some up to 130 years old, and Numanthia describes more than a hundred plots averaging 50 to 100 years, with the Termanthia vines at 120 to 150. They are low-trained in the traditional goblet shape and spaced wide apart, which lets them cope with a dry, hot climate and keeps crops very small. Rueda has the same story on a smaller scale: bush vines about a century old on sandy soil at 700 to 800 metres, in some cases cropping at a fraction of what is permitted. Old-vine Verdejo is often blended into mainstream wines rather than bottled alone, so single-site bottlings are the way to taste it. The effect is concentration without heaviness, a long finish, and wines that evolve for a decade or more.

In the glass: Concentration, depth and a long finish; wines that develop with age

Toro is hot and dry, so picking date decides fresh versus jammy.

Toro's summers are hot and its rain light, so grapes ripen deeply. Handling decides the result: estates such as Numanthia and Teso La Monja now aim for elegance, while heavier houses still make big, jammy reds.

Toro's summers are hot and its rain light, so grapes ripen deeply. Handling decides the result: estates such as Numanthia and Teso La Monja now aim for elegance, while heavier houses still make big, jammy reds.

In the glass: Fresher-leaning estates: red fruit and poise. Riper styles: dark, jammy, high alcohol

Steel tanks and cool fermentation keep Verdejo crisp and aromatic.

Most Rueda is fermented cold in stainless steel and bottled young, a fresh, youthful style with lime, fennel and a gentle bitter edge. The quickest way to taste the grape.

Most Rueda is fermented cold in stainless steel and bottled young, a fresh, youthful style with lime, fennel and a gentle bitter edge. The quickest way to taste the grape.

In the glass: Fresh citrus and herbs; light body; drink within a few years

Wild yeast, lees and French oak make weightier Verdejo.

Top estates ferment on native yeast and age the wine on its lees, or in barrel, for a long time. The result is rounder and nuttier, with a creamy texture and good ageing potential.

Top estates ferment on native yeast and age the wine on its lees, or in barrel, for a long time. The result is rounder and nuttier, with a creamy texture and good ageing potential.

In the glass: Creamy texture, toasty and nutty notes; wines that age

Single old vineyards are now bottled alone: Vinos de Finca and Paraje.

Rueda's best old vines were long blended into everyday wine. Producers increasingly bottle individual plots, a shift towards place over brand.

Rueda's best old vines were long blended into everyday wine. Producers increasingly bottle individual plots, a shift towards place over brand.

In the glass: More concentration and site character than a blended Verdejo

Carbonic maceration: Toro's light, juicy reds released fast.

Whole grapes ferment inside the berry before pressing, giving a purple, fruity, low-tannin red. Tinta de Toro ripens early enough for the method, and the wines are released from November of harvest.

Whole grapes ferment inside the berry before pressing, giving a purple, fruity, low-tannin red. Tinta de Toro ripens early enough for the method, and the wines are released from November of harvest.

In the glass: Bright red and purple fruit, soft tannin, very fresh

A newer Toro aims for elegance, not just power.

Toro was long known for heavy, high-alcohol, oaky reds. Leading estates now talk of elegance and freshness, so recent bottles from them can be less jammy than the old stereotype.

Toro was long known for heavy, high-alcohol, oaky reds. Leading estates now talk of elegance and freshness, so recent bottles from them can be less jammy than the old stereotype.

In the glass: More red fruit and poise; tannins polished rather than bulky