2023 Belondrade y Lurton Rueda (Verdejo)

Lemon and nectarine meet honeysuckle and fennel in a concentrated, classy wine. There`s a lick of posh oak on the mid-palate, leading through to the zesty, high-energy finish. 2023 was `a year of surprises` in Rueda, with very dry periods alternating with episodes of heavy rain. Jean Belondrade notes that `the passage of hail storms in the summer made us look to the sky with concern`. Harvest time saw some of the lowest yields at Belondrade in a decade, but the quality of the crop was very high. The wine is already performing extremely well. Jean notes that 2023 has `an integration which seems perhaps unusual for a wine this young`. (NT 24/06/25)