WINE OF THE WEEK: El Troyano Orange Verdejo 2024, La Mancha, Spain

£12.50, Vintage Roots

Almost the only thing this organic and biodynamic orange wine has in common with some other wines is out-and-out deliciousness.

Perhaps it’s a bit of an exaggeration to suggest El Troyano is so different from anything else (I’m not exaggerating about the deliciousness), but it doesn’t taste quite like any other wine. I don’t know where I would have been with it in a blind tasting.

It’s a slightly hazy, pale apricot colour and enticingly aromatic, with redcurrant, orange and camomile notes, a softly tangy, juicy palate with a little savoury meatiness in the middle, a rounded, smooth texture, a touch of spice and the gentlest grip on the finish. All this and modest alcohol, too. And in an admirably lightweight bottle.

The producer is Parra Jimenez in La Mancha, central Spain, where the Parra family has 180ha across two vineyards not far from the town of Las Mesas.

El Troyano Orange is made from white Verdejo grapes and gets its colour from the skins and juice being macerated together and pumped over in 200-litre clay amphorae and large French oak vats (instead of the juice being fermented without the skins, as with conventional white wines).

It’s a wine to drink lightly chilled – not as cold as a white wine – and it makes a good aperitif, unlike the more tannic traditional orange wines, but it also pairs well with food, including fresh, summery foods, lightly spicy chicken, fish, shellfish and vegetable dishes, tapas and meze spreads. 11.5%. Bottle weight: 384g

El Troyano Orange Verdejo 2024, La Mancha, Spain

£12.50, Vintage Roots

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