Tucked away in the backstreets of La Seca (population 1,000) a visit to Bodegas Martínsancho feels like a step back in time. There is only a single wine produced here, less than 2500 cases of an inimitable Verdejo that takes its name from a 17th-century vineyard called El Pago de Martínsancho. Some bush vines in this vineyard are pushing 200 years of age and represent the oldest Verdejo vines in the world. The original one-acre Martínsancho plot was expanded in the 1970s using massale cuttings from the ancient plot, yet those original vines persist, producing tiny volumes of fruit.

Although this Estate boasts a winemaking tradition that dates back centuries, it was not until 1981 that Ángel Rodríguez began to bottle his own wine. Rodríguez was known as ‘The Man Who Saved Verdejo’, the indigenous grape grown in the area since the 11th century. The variety almost became extinct in the 1970s when many vineyards were being pulled up to plant Sauvignon Blanc and Viura. Rodríguez persisted, and shortly before passing away in 2018, his work was honoured with the Cross of the Civil Order of Agricultural Merit by King Juan Carlos I of Spain.

Each of the estate’s 5000-litre casks has a feather sticking out of it. If you asked for a taste, Ángel Rodríguez would hold up a glass and pluck out the feather, which had a little cork on the other end. This cork stopped a tiny hole in the cask, which would proceed to shoot a jet of Rueda that he expertly caught in the glass.

Sauvignon Blanc was not the only innovation unwelcome at chez Rodríguez. There remains no packaged yeast, stainless steel, refrigeration or filtration equipment—each now commonplace on the Rueda scene. Untouched by modern techniques, the wine is made entirely by hand, naturally fermented and raised in century-old 5,000-litre oak botas housed in a naturally cold warren of cellars—unusual in a country where most cellars sit above the ground.

Ángel’s daughter Concepción and grandson Eduardo continue the legacy here. Luckily for us, the Estate’s wine culture isn’t the only thing here untouched by time; Señor Rodríguez’s tariff has barely budged in the ten-plus years we have been shipping the wine. On the one hand, all this living history would seem to personify the opposite of what the authorities like to call ‘progress’. On the other, organic viticulture, old vines, hand harvesting and minimalist winemaking offer a shining, idealistic example for Spain’s forward-thinking producers. The racy, rocky purity of this authentic old vine Rueda brings it all home. Everything old is new again.