Javier Sanz

Javier Sanz Viticultor farms at La Seca in Rueda, and the family have grown grapes there since the nineteenth century. They hold a plot of pre-phylloxera ungrafted Verdejo, which is exceptionally rare.

Rueda sits on the high Castilian plateau at around 700 metres, on stony soils that drain hard. Verdejo is its grape, native to the region and recorded there since the eleventh century, and it gives fennel, citrus and a characteristic bitter-almond finish. For centuries it was made oxidatively in the manner of Sherry; the modern fresh style dates only from the 1970s, when Marques de Riscal came from Rioja to make white wine here and changed the region entirely.

Rey Santo, the holy king, refers to Ferdinand III of Castile. The estate is among the most respected in the appellation.