2022 Cuatro Rayas Verdejo Cuarenta Vendimias Rueda 750 ml

Imagine we put a lightly chilled, pale-gold glass of white wine in your hand and told you it was a varietal bottling from 40-year-old vines. After taking in its burgeoning aromas of citrus peel and salted-peach, what would you guess it was? 

Maybe a Sancerre? A single-vineyard Chablis? A top Loire Chenin Blanc?

When we tried this out on Sur Lucero, MS, he correctly identified—and then raved over—the mystery glass: It was a Verdejo from Spain’s sun-baked Rueda region. Serves us right for trying to fool a Master Sommelier. What he didn’t guess, though, was the shocking price.

This extraordinary limited-edition release was crafted to celebrate the decades-long tenure of the late, celebrated winemaker Angel Calleja. It’s made with the very vines he planted over 40 years ago, and the cuvée’s name, Cuarenta Vendimias, translates to “Forty Harvests.” Grown in sandy-clay soils and boasting the intensity and weight that only comes with this kind of vine age, the wine shows a beautiful structure and gorgeous cut. 

Cuatro Rayas, founded in 1935, is a giant in Rueda, and they have access to countless acres of the region’s finest vineyards. The Cuarenta Vendimias cuvée is culled from only a fraction of these. It achieves a rare thing—freshness AND depth—by pairing up the old-vine pedigree with stainless-steel fermentation and then five months on the lees with regular batonnage to round out the palate.