Carrasviñas Dorado

The Félix Lorenzo Cachazo winery, one of the founders of D.O. Rueda, makes Carrasviñas Dorado as a revival of the region's traditional golden wine, drawn from ungrafted, pre-phylloxera Verdejo and Palomino vines that survived on sandy soils. The wine is made by deliberate oxidation: it spends eighteen months maturing outdoors in glass vats, exposed to sun and temperature swings, followed by twenty-four months in oak barrels. This slow oxidative ageing converts alcohol to acetaldehyde and drives the deep golden colour, the nutty aromatics and the savoury, dried-fruit character, in the manner of a traditional non-fortified oxidative white. The result reaches around fifteen percent alcohol naturally. It shows deep gold to amber, with a nose of dried apricot, walnut, hazelnut, orange peel and a toasted, faintly caramelised background. The palate is dry, rich and complex, with roasted nuts, dried fruit and a long, savoury finish carrying real length. This is an idiosyncratic, oxidative white for the table or the end of a meal. Serve at 12 to 13 degrees in a small white glass. Good with cured ham, aged cheeses and roasted almonds.