Fresh and Fabulous; Wine Wednesday

The hot summer months always have me looking for a crisp and affordable white wine to keep chilled and ready to go. Having been a fan of Spanish wines over the years, I recently read where verdejo, the signature grape of the Rueda Region, was being billed as a better version of sauvignon blanc. Also a sauv blanc fan, I figured it was time to revisit this grape and I'm so glad I did.

Some forty producers currently export verdejo to the US, I chose Verdeo Verdejo from the acclaimed Torres family. It is just as fresh on the inside as the label would suggest on the outside.

This wine had a nice balance of minerality, acidity and citrus. Something that often turns people off from many sauvignon blancs is heavy citrus, sometimes I feel like I'm sucking on a grapefruit peel. So perhaps the aforementioned comparison is good strategy to win over the disheartened sauv blanc drinkers.

A refreshing sipper, this wine also had a nice touch of the tropics, as in fruit. Good with grilled shrimp and a fresh salad, it's one of the best bargains of the summer for me, in the $10 range.

You'll want more than one bottle so do yourself a favor and just buy a case.