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La Mancha is not just Spain’s largest DO; its 155,000 hectares of vines make it the largest wine producing region in the world. With a winemaking history going back to the Romans, today the region’s 15,000 registered wine growers and 250 wineries, or bodegas, ensure that the wine sector is one of the key motors of the local economy. While still wines make up the biggest chunk of the region’s output, distillation is important too, and the region is a key supplier of spirit for the famous Brandy de Jerez.

Derived from the Moorish term Manxa meaning ¨parched earth¨, La Mancha is large, flat and relatively high, with most vineyards between 600 and 800 metres above sea level. Starting on the southern fringes of Madrid, it stretches south about 200km down towards Valdepeñas, and about the same again from east to west. Climate is mainly dry and continental with long, hot summers and bitterly cold winters with frequent frosts. The white grape Airén and red Cencibel remain the most popular grapes, although you’ll increasingly see other Spanish grapes like Graciano or Verdejo, and international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay.

Albillo Real is a native Spanish grape that for centuries was consumed primarily as a table grape. These days, white wines made from Albillo Real are increasingly in demand although it’s still hard to find it outside Spain.

Wines made from Albillo Real tend to be quite pale in colour, with delicious aromas of quince, pear, orange blossom and jasmine, sometimes with a touch of grapefruit skin. The wines can be quite dense almost oily in the mouth, with good structure and, occasionally, a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Moravia Agria is one of Spain’s more obscure red grape varieties, grown principally in Castilla-La Mancha. this is a grape with a fairly high natural acidity which, so it’s used to bring freshness to wines in hotter parts of Spain, especially the south-east. Sometimes it can be quite herbaceous or grassy too, a little like some of the native red varieties in Galicia for example.

The López Montero family have been a key part of the winemaking tradition in the town of Tomelloso in La Mancha since the late 18^th century. The family farm around 250 hectares in total, but in 2005 they launched the Verum project with a clear focus on 80 hectares of the finest vineyard sites and plots on the property.

Verum means "truthful" or "real" in Latin, and it is this search for authenticity in all aspects of the winemaking process that really sets the winery apart.

Key to the winery’s success is son and winemaker Elias López Montero whose philosophy is to work ecologically, respecting natural cycles and the character of the land to showcase the full potential of the different grape varieties. That clarity of focus has brought praise and plaudits from a host of international wine critics like Jancis Robinson or the Wine Advocate in the US.

This is the winery’s first orange wine, made with a blend of 85% Albillo Real white grapes plus a touch of the rare red variety, Moravia Agria. This demands an absolutely rigorous approach in the vineyard and the winery as what’s on the grape skins will make its way into the final wine. The Moravia is vinified as if it were a white variety - ie with no skin maceration – while the Albillo Real remains in contact with the grape skins for two months. Once fermented, the wine spends 4 months ageing in stainless steel and a further 6 months in old, 4,500-litre clay tinajas.