I’ve heard many stories of woe when discussing the 2007 vintage from Spain, but from what I’ve seen of the verdejos and albarinos they seem to be good drinking at the moment, however the crop level was quite low. It is always dangerous to make generalisations about vintages across a whole country, but its fair to say many regions didn’t have the best conditions for red wine. However, over in the Douro in Portugal, they had a cracker. There is talk of it being the best red wine vintage yet.

Anyway, we got stuck in to this verdejo from Bodegas Angel Rodriguez over the weekend. This to me looks to be a classic Martinsancho: fresh and lively but a definitely a grown up’s wine. Taught and linar with a nose of pear and fennel bulb with some grassy passion fruit and a green rosemary note. Textured, long and tangy in the mouth, pear and apple with a bit of kiwi and lemon peel. A very classy Verdejo that is good with food and on it’s own. Good value too. 90 Pts.

Source: Bibendum Wine Co. Price: $30 Closure: Conventional Cork

Other vintages: 2004, 2006