Aging white wines are one of the most important global trends in wine. This type of wine was the theme of the first presentation on Wednesday at Madrid Fusion The Wine Edition 2025.

What makes a great white wine for ageing? Is it the grape variety, the soil, the winemaker's touch, the barrels? Sarah Jane Evans MW explored these questions and more in an exceptional tasting featuring three of Spain's most prominent producers: Rafael Palacios (Rafael Palacios), Pedro Ruiz (Ossian) and María Vargas (Marqués de Murrieta and Pazo Barrantes), leaders in the international image of white wines for ageing.

"This wine has a special soul, it is born very close to the Atlantic and in a paradise of mushrooms due to the climate and rainfall, where viticulture is a challenge, but Albariño is our safeguard because of its adaptability," explained María Vargas during the tasting of La Comtesse 2019, the great wine for ageing from Pazo Barrantes. "Our goal is to seek the maximum balance so that the wine has the capacity to grow with time in the bottle. In the Salnés Valley we can have all four seasons in one day, but all these difficulties result in a fragile but robust wine, with an acidity and extreme finesse that does not lose its varietal character despite ageing".

"Wines are like people, they have to be clear about their goal, who they are and where they want to go," Vargas argued. "It is more difficult to make a good white wine than a good red wine. To make a red wine, you have a structure and a strength that supports you in every decision, but the whites are more cheeky, they complain about everything and they are difficult to work with".

"There was a time when making a white wine was a problem for wineries due to a lack of technology; it was difficult to ensure the varietal and personal origin of the vineyard," said Rafael Palacios. "Today there is a new era in Spanish whites beyond the Marco de Jerez, great strides are being made towards the quality of this category of wines to compete in the international market." His Godello, Sorte O Soro, made in Val do Bibei (Valdeorras), reflects the perfect union of terroir, altitude and climate to achieve the coveted duality of maturity and freshness. A wine with a pronounced salty character and a sapid and horizontal minerality, whose barrel-aged finish defines a world-class wine. According to Luis Gutiérrez (The Wine Advocate), one of the best whites of the modern era.

Juli Soler Prize for the future of wine

While Madrid Fusion Alimentos de España unveils the new batch of revelation chefs every year, The Wine Edition Wines from Spain does the same with the new wine professionals.

In this fifth edition, and once again with the Spanish Wine Academy of Ramón Bilbao as official sponsor and with the personal support of Rita Soler, this Wednesday, 5th July, the Soler Award for Talent and the Future of Wine was awarded to young people with a promising future in the different fields of the sector.

This year, the five young talents recognized with this title were Rocío Yagüe (33), sommelier at the Hotel Brach (Madrid), Fernando Moret (25), sommelier and manager of the restaurant Ambivium (Valladolid), Juan Príncipe (28), winemaker at the winery César Príncipe (Valladolid), Ismael Mena (25), sommelier at the restaurant Barro (Ávila), and Adrián Ferrón (28), sommelier at the restaurant Lera (Zamora).

The award ceremony was followed by a tasting of the wines chosen by the young winners, which showed the trend towards white wines. "Young people are not only confirming this reality, but we are also influencing this new consumption; more white wines with structure that can stand up to strong food are in demand; as sommeliers, this type of wine gives us space to develop pairings, and as consumers, they allow us to go further," argued Rocío Yagüe.

"It is difficult to get consumers to abandon the misconception that young wines are cheaper, or that reds must always be more expensive," said Sara Bañuelos, winemaker at Bodegas Ramón Bilbao in Rueda. We have to bring young people closer to the world of wine, get them involved in its consumption, otherwise we are lost.

Winemaker Juan Príncipe took the opportunity to defend the idea that wine is about having a good time: "Before it was important that it was good and now it's important that it's entertaining; our generation is united and we're all pulling together to shape the future world of wine, we can do whatever we want and it's a lot of fun".

During his speech, Adrián Ferrón, sommelier at Lera, made a plea for the consumption of wine by young people: "If we want people to drink wine like they drink beer, to drink wine in bars and on terraces, we have to take the edge off the subject, drink like my grandfather did," he said.

Sake pairings and a movie ending

The last Wine Day of the year took place on Wednesday with chef Hugo Muñoz, head of the kitchen at Ugo Chan*. On this occasion, the subject of study was not wine but sake, in a pairing that benefited from the experience of Marco Broccani, sommelier at the restaurant, and Pablo Alomar, expert in the Japanese rice drink and manager of Salvioni & Alomar.

Wine and sake, in their different expressions, coexisted in perfect harmony in different pairings, highlighting the gastronomic possibilities of both drinks to harmonize with Asian cuisine. "While the world of wine is trying to adapt to the new times by seeking freshness and lightness, the people of sake are also getting closer to the acidity that this producer has not traditionally had," said Alomar, dispelling the myth of the high alcohol content that usually accompanies the Japanese drink.

An oyster with layu, ponzu and lime peel accompanied by Guillem Pastrana's Eleison wine; a bull tartare tribute to Robuchón paired with Domanie des Tours Clairette 2029; and in the case of sakes, Dewazakura Dewa Sansan for a Guy Savoy artichoke cream; and Tedorigawa Yoshida Yamahai Kijoshu 2018 with tripe gyoza were the star pairings of this bold vinomio.

On Wednesday afternoon, the fifth edition of Madrid Fusion The Wine Edition ended with the actors of the popular series "Alpha Males" as the grand finale. Fele Martínez and Raúl Tejón starred in the "Alpha Wines" encounter, an entertaining conversation that combined the world of wine with the performing arts through a tasting of Mandolás (Hungary) and Macán (La Rioja) from Vega Sicilia, Marqués de Vargas Gran Reserva 2016 and Conde San Cristóbal Reserva Especial 2019.

At the end of the party, Pilar Cavero, sommelier and wine critic for the ABC newspaper, led a relaxed conversation about wine and television series with the two actors, who recently presented the fourth season of their acclaimed Netflix title.

"For me, wine is associated with getting together, with being with people, but I share the hobby and I usually look for new things, even though my character in the series only drinks beer," said Raúl Tejón. "For me, wine has its liturgy and I usually open bottles at home because I really enjoy a glass of wine while cooking and, like Raúl, I also like to discover the typical wines of the place where I am," added Fele Martínez.

The actors agreed on the importance of points or awards when choosing a wine: "As in cinema or theater, the spectator or consumer has the final opinion in the case of wine: he is the one who completes the creative process and completes the meaning of the creation, and this opinion is always subjective," concluded Tejón.