Familia Torres Celeste Verdejo Sur Lies 2020

When James Suckling recently concluded tasting thru nearly 2,300 bottles last week in his annual dive into the best wines of Spain, Italy, Austria and more, a familiar winery lit up the scoreboard to the tune of more than a dozen wines scoring 90 points or higher.

That winery is none other than the Torres Family– the European wine giant and consistent winner of Drink International Magazine’s longtime holder of the “Most Admired Brand in Europe” award. 2020 marks the winery’s 150th anniversary though their roots date back to the 1557’s. Nobody in Spain has the kind of stronghold on indegenious varietals, and nobody can boast the consistent excellence the Torres Family can. They’re not touching this latest release either.

The 2020 Celeste Sur Lies Verdejo Rueda is really freaking good. I had a glass last week at the bar with a distributor and it blew me away. The beauty of these Spanish wines is that the quality is every bit $50/bottle, and the price tag is always a fraction of that.

This one is what I like to call fruity and fun with a lot of citrus, grapefruit, lemon lime notes to pair with some nice firm acid and wonderful concentration and depth. Cut off flinty soils, it’s got a great mineral component that harmonizes beautifully with the fruit. It’s a super food-friendly wine, especially with seafood, but it’s the kind of wine you might just want to sip on and enjoy all by itself.