Beautiful Rueda Sky
The D.O. Rueda stands 700 to 800 metres above sea-level, and consists of flat highlands, with very long, cold winters, short springs with late frosts, and dry, hot summers, only altered by untimely storms. This factor forces the vines to search for their water resources deep underground, much more so than in other European regions.
Plants flower late, with pruning taking place as late as March, sometimes even April. Rain is scarce, with minimum levels of 300 litres and maximum levels of 500 litres per year.
In the past, a ditch used to be dug around the vines at the end of winter, to collect the spring rain. Early in the summer, a “shelter” was built by throwing the earth around the vines again and often half burying it to preserve it from summer evaporation. Today, farming improvements and the installation of dripping devices take care of these tasks, which otherwise could not be carried out.
The difference between day and night temperatures is key to the balance the grape must have between the sugar provided by the sun and the acidity it does not lose during the cooler nights. Sun exposure reaches 2,600 hours a year, which would be too much were it not for the late maturation of the grape.
In terms of latitude, the Rueda region is located within the Mediterranean area. Its altitude, however, corresponds to that of a continental region.