Wine & Words

Basa has long been one of our favorite wines for summer, but even though those hot days seem far off in March I wanted to add it to the Featured mix this week because 1) we didn’t want to have an all-Tempranillo lineup and leave our white wine drinkers out, and 2) we tasted this latest vintage in Wilmington on Monday and were mightily impressed. The wine is 50% Verdejo, 40% Viura and 10% Sauvignon Blanc, a blend that gives it soft fruit in the middle of your mouth, followed by a crisp burst of acidity. Wine Enthusiast magazine gave it 89 Pts, and the reviewer wrote: “…you get a ton of steely citrus and mineral aromas and flavors adding up to endless refreshment possibilities. Spritzy, zesty and a perennial bargain among aromatic whites.” I’ll drink to that.
The wine is from Rueda (rue-AY-duh), a region on the south bank of the Ebro River about 150 km northwest of Madrid. The Rueda DO, established in 1980, exists mostly for the purpose of supporting its indigenous grape, Verdejo (vair-DAY-hoe). The Verdejo grape is said to have originated in North Africa and been brought to the Rueda region in the 11th Century by Mozarabs, Iberian Christians who lived under Moorish rule. For centuries the Verdejo grape was used to make an oxidized sherry type wine, but in the 1980’s sophisticated winemakers started blending it with Sauvignon Blanc and Viura/Macabeo, another Spanish grape, to make bright, crisp whites like Basa and our other Rueda selection, Las Brisas.