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Rueda is an historic wine region with winemaking traditions that stretch back to the Middle Ages. It is famed for the Verdejo grape and its fresh, unoaked dry white wines which are very approachable and easy to drink.

Centred around the town of Rueda in Castilla y León, about 170km north-west of Madrid, Rueda spans the provinces of Valladolid, Segovia and Avila and sits in the depression formed by the Duero river valley in the middle of the Meseta Central (Spain’s central plain). With 20,000 hectares of vineyard, Rueda is one of Spain’s larger DOs and has around 75 registered wineries.

Far from the coast and at an altitude of 600-780 metres above sea level, Rueda’s winters are cold and long, late frosts are frequent, and summers are hot and dry. But the variation between day and night-time temperatures is a positive factor, as the heat helps the sugars develop in the grapes while cooler temperatures at night help to lock in acidity.

Basa is made primarily from Verdejo with a touch of Viura (10%).

Verdejo is mainly grown in Castilla y León and especially in DO Rueda where it makes up nearly 90% of the harvest, so it really is the dominant grape variety in the region. You can expect a good wine made from Verdejo to be brimming with fruit flavours like apple, fresh lime and maybe even a touch of melon, coupled with aromas of fresh grass, pine and sometimes even a bit of fennel.

Viura (aka Macabeo) is Spain’s fifth-most widely planted grape. It's a productive variety and is fairly adaptable, so is often seen in blends. But you will also find single varietal wines made from this grape. Viura brings aromas of white fruit to this wine, coupled with floral and sometimes aniseed notes.

Telmo Rodríguez is one of Spain’s most celebrated, and diverse, contemporary winemakers. Born into the world of wine - his family own and run the Remelluri winery in Rioja Alavesa – he learnt his craft in the family vineyards as well as more formal training in Bordeaux and various French chateaux.

In 1994, he teamed up with his now business partner, Pablo Eguzkiza, a man who also learnt much of his craft in France with Claude Berrouet, the man behind the internationally famous wines of Petrus. The pair made their first wine, Alma, in Navarra. It was a Garnacha – an innovation at a time when the norm was for wines made with more international varieties like Cabernet or Merlot. In 1995, they crossed Spain and began working in Arribes del Duero with the native grape Juan García. In 1996, they bottled the first vintage of Basa in DO Rueda; quite a risk at a time when Spain was known primarily as a country of reds, and there were very few quality white wines being made.

More wines followed – Moscatels in the Axarquía region of Málaga; Garnachas in Aragón, or Moristel in Somontano – until in 1998, Telmo returned to his Riojan roots and settled in the village of Lanciego. But the wandering continued as the pair made more wines in Ribera del Duero, Toro, Galicia and in central Spain in the granite vineyards of Cebreros, where Pegaso, one of his best-known wines, hails from.

In 2007, the pair built their first winery in Lanciego, Bodega Lanzaga, and in 2011 they bottled the first vintage of Las Beatas, a wine that has since achieved an almost mythical status in Spain, thanks in large part to the 100 points the 2015 was awarded by US wine critic Robert Parker. These days, Compañía de Vinos de Telmo Rodríguez oversees over 350 separate vineyard plots, covering 80 hectares and more than 40 native grape varieties.

Following a combined manual and machine harvest, the grapes are fermented together in stainless steel tanks and aged for a short time on their lees in the tank before being bottled.