Valladolid, in northern Castile, is the hub of a highly productive wine region that for foreigners has always been overshadowed by neighbouring Rioja. For Spaniards, however, it’s a been an enduring love affair, as the much prized Duero wines were regularly quaffed by the Hapsburg kings back in the 16th century. Coursing through Old Castile, the Duero river combines with chalky soil and wildly fluctuating temperatures to nurture some of Spain’s stellar reservas. Rueda (white), Cigales (rosé and red), Toro (red) and the smooth yet potent Ribera (red) all originate here. One of the oldest bodega labels, Vega Sicilia, has been described by a British wine-writer as “on a Wagnerian scale of subtlety and complexity”. Beat that if you can. Altogether there are some 200 bodegas in this part of Castile and no shortage of eponymous castles, as the Duero river was once the frontline between the Christians and the Moors in the lengthy “reconquest”.