Rueda is the Spanish white-wine appellation that matters most commercially, built on the verdejo grape grown on the stony plateau south of Valladolid, and the village fair is where its producers pour for the public rather than the trade. Tastings, a producers' market and a programme of cellar visits.
No attendance figure is published.
The DO has an unusual history: the grape was nearly abandoned for a sweet oxidised style until the 1970s, when Marqués de Riscal came from Rioja looking for a white and brought in modern equipment and French advice. Everything made there now descends from that decision.
May is the window. Rueda is a small village and the appellation stretches across several others — Serrada, La Seca, Medina del Campo — so the useful version of this trip is a car and a list of bodegas, with Valladolid forty minutes north as the base.
PlanningA short May window; the appellation's bodegas are spread across villages, so a car is assumed.