Valdemoreda

Valdemoreda is a small range of straightforward Spanish varietal wines: a Macabeo white, a Garnacha rosado and a Tempranillo red, each labelled with nothing more than the brand, the vintage and the grape. There is no estate story on the bottle and no appellation seal on the front label. That is deliberate, and it is how a lot of good, honest, inexpensive Spanish wine reaches this country.

These are not fine wines and they are not sold as such. They are the sort of bottles that get drunk rather than admired: cold, in quantity, with food, on a weeknight or at a party. The three of them cover the three colours, they are all young and unoaked, and they all sit between 12 and 13.5 per cent alcohol, which in Spanish terms means they have been picked for freshness rather than for power.

All three sell by the case of six, which is the reason they are worth a look. That is the price bracket where a shop like ours usually cannot compete with a supermarket, and buying by the case is what makes it possible. If you are stocking up for a summer of people in the garden, or you want a house red that does not need thinking about, this is what they are for.

The Macabeo is the same grape Rioja calls Viura, and it makes a light, dry, aperitif-style white. The Garnacha rosado is a dry pink, not a sweet one. The Tempranillo is unoaked, so it tastes of the fruit rather than of the barrel, which makes it a better match for lighter meat than a Rioja Crianza would be.

One thing I am still chasing: exactly who makes these wines and under which appellation. The front labels carry only the brand name, and the range does not appear in the catalogue of the bodega it is usually attributed to. So what this page can tell you is what the wines are, what they cost and what they are good for. I will update it once I have the rest from the source.