Tradewinds Specialty Imports -- Spanish Wines

The Denomination of Origin Rueda possesses exceptional natural resources for the production of top-quality wines. The regions is most know for making internationally renowned white wines.

The production area included in the Denomination of Origin Rueda is located in the Region of Castilla y León and consists of 72 towns and villages, 53 of which are located south of the province of Valladolid, 17 to the west of Segovia, and 2 north of Ávila.

Grapes and Winemaking

The Denomination of Origin Rueda is one of the few European winegrowing regions specialized in making white wine and in the preservation and development of the Verdejo, which is the autochthonous grape variety. Rueda wines are marked by the strong personality of the Verdejo grape, the incorporation of other varieties, and the vineyards themselves, which have learned to survive in a tough, almost hostile, environment in order to give their best to the wine.

Featured Wineries

Bodegas Felix Lorenzo Cachazo S.L. is a family winery with several generations of tradition producing white wines. Felix Lorenzo, with his wife Rita Heras, founded the new winery in 1993. Before that year, the family had a winery in the centre of the town Pozaldez with old wineries built under the floor in the 17th century and big barrels of 4,000 liters of capacity. They still have some of then with a depth of more than 40 meters.

Several generations (the grandparents of Felix’s grandparents…) of history go into their winemaking. However, the most important change came with the foundation of the D.O. Rueda 27 years ago. The well known Marques de Riscal had a meeting with Felix’s father and 6 other wineries and they all decided to create a new kind of wine with the Verdejo grape.

Having outgrown their small winery in 1993, they built a new structure outside of the town with the most modern technologies as inox tanks, press machines, temperature control for the fermentations.

No doubt, the grapes are the secret of their success. With 25 hectares of vineyards of their own, coupled with buying grapes from 200 hectares from local farmers in their village, they have good control over the quality of grapes used. Not only do they buy grapes from the same producers via oral contracts, but they have been doing so for generation after generation…

120 years ago there was a pest in Europe named as “filoxera” that destroyed the 99,5% of the European vineyards. The few survivors included some vineyards in the Canary Islands (the filoxera couldn’t swim) and some vineyards close to Felix’s current location. History would eventually reveal that the filoxera couldn’t pass throw the sand soil of that area. They still have some of those vineyards, and with being more than 100 years old, they may be among the oldest vineyards in Europe.

Mania Verdejo/Viura

Mania Verdejo

Gran Cardiel