Featured Tasting! El Cortijillo Verdejo 2015

This is my first ever "Featured Tasting!" These special reviews are of wines that I like enough to purchase a bottle myself for re-enjoyment.  I will accompany the main review with a little research of the variety, terroir and other various aspects particular to the wine.

Name: El Cortijillo Verdejo
Variety: Verdejo
Region: La Mancha
Country: Spain
Year: 2015
Price: $4.95

Bonus Background Research: To classify as a Spanish Verdejo, the percentage of grapes used only need be 50% Verdejo.  This allows for liberal blending of other grape varieties to make each Verdejo especially unique.  Furthermore, Verdejo grapes are harvested at night to control temperature and fermented in stainless steel barrels.
The La Mancha region and central Spain in general is a strange region for viticulture. The soil is almost desert-like and even rocky in some places where vines look more like tumbleweeds (see photo).  This doesn't deter Verdejo grapes though, which are by far the most common grapes grown in the region.

Winery Review: Golden straw color. Bright, attractive, tropical aromas of creme brulee and fruit tart with a silky, bright, dry-yet-fruity light-to-medium body and a smooth, intriguing, snappy lime and apple finish with crunchy, fruit tannins and light oak. A super smooth and pure white sipper.

My Review: Delicious and refreshing! Despite this being the first of five wines tasted, I still remembered my good experience with it after it all. Similarly to the Tempranillo, you can really smell the sandy/rocky/salty terroir of La Mancha in a whiff of this. Honey-butter and nectarine also linger in the air as you prepare for first taste.  Plunge in for a refreshingly dry, high acid, summertime-reminiscent light-bodied white.  The honey-butter whiffs are validated in the immediate after-taste. Take another mouthful and swish around to find that lemons, limes and other citrus seem to provide the high acidity. At $4.95 a bottle, this wine is a steal for the refreshing taste it delivers. My favorite glass of the day and made me forget the winter cold that awaited me outside in Blacksburg.

Tasted without food.