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Why Rueda Sauvignon Blanc is about to sky-rocket
Rueda might be best known for its Verdejo wines, but 2024 is the first “perfect vintage” the Spanish region has seen for Sauvignon Blanc, Sarah Neish discovers, and the market timing couldn’t be better.
Speaking to the drinks business, Santiago Mora, director general of DO Rueda, praised the overall quality of the region’s 2024 harvest, despite being a year of unusually high rainfall.
While the average rainfall in Rueda, he said, is around 300ml to 350ml per year, “in 2024 we had 450ml to 520ml rainfall”.
Thankfully, this rain was spread evenly throughout the year, making it “very easy to work with” and preventing the onset of disease, leading to “exceptional sanitary conditions”.
This rainfall also brought another boon for Rueda; the best harvest it has seen yet for Sauvignon Blanc. And given that other prolific Sauvignon producers around the world are experiencing reduced exports, now could be the moment for Rueda to step up to the plate.
Perfect conditions
Rueda winemakers have been producing around 8 million bottles of Sauvignon Blanc per year, but as Mora explains “it is a much more difficult variety” to cultivate in Rueda than the indigenous Verdejo, for which the appellation is so well known (86% of Rueda’s total production). But in 2024 all the stars aligned to bring about perfect conditions for Sauvignon, particularly.
“With Verdejo we have a very solid bet, but this year is probably our best harvest ever for Sauvignon Blanc,” he told db. “Sauvignon needs very fresh conditions and it suffers so much from extreme heat”, which Rueda avoided this year.
It’s not only weather conditions, but macro-economic ones, that could see sales of Rueda Sauvignon soar.
“The likes of New Zealand, Rías Baixas, all the [white wine] competitors, are seeing some problems, not only with their weather but with prices,” said Mora. “In the UK, retailers and consumers are starting to pay attention to Rueda. If they understand that Rueda is ready, then who am I to say that we are not..?”
According to Mora, Rueda Sauvignon Blanc is “cheaper than New Zealand but not as cheap as Chile”.
He also revealed that in the last two years, Rueda has “more than doubled” its wine exports to the UK, growing from 400,000 bottles to 850,000 bottles. Meanwhile, New Zealand Winegrowers announced in its annual 2023-2024 report that its exports were down 22% in the later half of 2023. Compounding this is the country’s reduced 2024 crop, which is expected to be “significantly smaller” than the last two years.
When New Zealand suffered a short harvest in 2021, South Africa succeeded in filling some of the shortfall of Sauvignon Blanc. Could Rueda be about to do the same?
“We are capitalising on the opportunity right now,” Mora said, adding that the region will be communicating messages of “quality, consistency and value for money” to give its Sauvignon a push.
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