Bodegas Campoameno, Vega Badenes Verdejo, 2025

Grapes

Verdejo

Vintage report

The 2025 vintage in Castilla La Mancha is, frankly, too recent for us to give you the full picture with any confidence — harvest wrapped up only months ago, and the wines are still finding their feet in barrel and tank. What we can say is that the region faced another season shaped by the twin pressures familiar across central Spain: intense summer heat and erratic water availability, with growers who invest in sustainable canopy management and careful irrigation timing generally faring better than those who don't. The high-altitude vineyards of Manchuela and the Tarancón plateau, as ever, had a natural advantage in preserving freshness.

Early indications suggest the vintage rewarded those who picked with nerve — neither too early in a scramble to save acidity, nor too late chasing ripeness they didn't need. Tempranillo looks promising, with structure to spare, and Airén — so often underestimated — appears to have produced some lively, low-intervention whites worth watching. We'd expect most reds to drink well from 2026 onwards, with the more serious Bobal and Garnacha-based wines worth holding until 2027 or 2028. We'll say more once the wines are in bottle and in glass.