White hot heat, cool wine.

When you think of Spanish wine, what comes to mind? Rioja, presumably, Cava perhaps? Maybe even Sherry if you're very sophisticated. What is sure is that people in general are far less likely to associate Spain with regular white wine. In fact, such is the power of association and reputation that some people still think of Rioja as purely red wine though they don't get out much. They make white in Rioja and good wine too, rich oaky styles in general but I'm going to talk about a different wine, made from a grape called Verdejo. Some of the nicest white wines in Spain are made in a place called Rueda, near Portugal. Look out for them: fruity, fresh and nice minerality. I recently received a bottle of wine made with verdejo but made in Toledo in central Spain by a small boutique producer, Finca Constancia. It has all the buzzwords on the label; 'single vineyard', 'parcel', they even put the geographical coordinates of the vineyards on there. In other words, you can pretty much pinpoint the grapes. Visibility and provenance have become big things in the food and wine trade and it's no bad thing. It's no guarantee of quality but it does smooth the path. Verdejo is rarely oaked, like Sauvignon blanc is rarely oaked so when it is, like this one, alarm bells ring-Pouilly Fumé asides- but it worked, giving a nice smokiness to the wine that integrated well with the significant fruit that is a characteristic of verdejo. It's very hot in Toledo which guarantees lots of fruit but the skill of the winemaking and modern technology allows them to keep the wines fresh too. We had this with smoked haddock and cod fishcakes and spinach and ricotta ravioli. The smokiness of the haddock combining well with the toasty oak. Delicious partners overall as the richness of the dish's flavours were well matched by the wines nice complexity of rich fruit and fresh zesty feel.

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 Look out for them but if you can't find this particular wine, have a look out for Rueda in general!

Salud!