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The Society’s
HOW TO BUY SPAIN
Introduction by Pierre Mansour, buyer of Spanish wines
The Spanish wine scene is going through exciting times. Its 67 regions are full of dynamic, talented winemakers who are making more and more delicious and individual wines for us to enjoy. Such a diverse country is not easily summed up but the guide below gives pointers to the principal regions and styles, delivered
in an idiosyncratic way by Carlos Read whose in-depth knowledge of the country is second to none. He is
also regarded as the best UK specialist importer for Spanish wines.
The ﬁne-wine producing regions of Sherry (Jerez) and Rioja have their own separate guides.
About the author
Carlos Read has been the Spanish correspondent for a number of wine magazines as well as the primary
source of the Spanish section of Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Guide for a number of years.
Background
Spain is a large country of tremendous diversity, and even the briefest glance at its physical
geography, its dramatic mountain chains in
particular, will serve to explain the major regional differences created by so many natural
barriers.
Its history is intricate and complicated, and
Spain did not even begin to come together as
a nation until the late ﬁfteenth century. The
foundations of its infrastructure were essentially the creation of its two primary foreign
masters: the Romans (from the third century
BC to the fourth/ﬁfth century AD) and the
Moors (from 711 till 1492).
The former provided not just roads, aqueducts, and amphitheatres but thirst and a
major export market. Indeed, by the second
century AD Rome alone had worked its way through some 20 million amphorae of Spanish wine - ranging from the sweet wines of Málaga, through the claretes (or light reds) of Amandi in Galicia (a favourite,
particularly with spiced lamprey, of the Emperor Augustus), to the Catalan reds of Tarragona and whites
of Alella. Hispanic success was such that strict new planting limitations had to be imposed on the colonies
in an effort to protect native producers.
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The latter, despite the prohibitions of the Koran and the consequent symbolic uprooting of many Spanish vineyards to produce raisins, were even by today’s standards quite enlightened. The customs of the
Christian population were tolerated, including the production and sale of wine, which, although only on a
reduced scale, was enough to keep the sector active. After the ﬁnal vanquishing of the Moors and the expulsion of the Jews production steadily increased as demand rose in the expanding colonies. Many foreign
merchants became involved, ﬁlling the vacuum left by the Jews.
Later, in the sixteenth century, after Christopher Columbus discovered America, the Sherry town of Sanlúcar
de Barrameda became an important transatlantic trading port and the wines from the area are alleged to
have been the ﬁrst to enter America. Thus Jerez/Sherry is to Spain as Port is to Portugal, and merits its own
dedicated guide.Later still was the French intervention in Rioja; though the true winemaking revolution
comes politically after Franco’s death in 1975. The early 1980s saw a veritable technological revolution with
the advent of stainless steel. Recent years have some vast sums pouring into new wineries, but with Spain
currently the worst recession-hit European nation, many of these look set to fold, restoring something of a
natural balance.
The DO System
The main deﬁnitions of Spain’s DO (Denominación de Origen), its wine quality control system, in ascending
order of quality are:
Vino de Mesa
A basic table wine made in unclassiﬁed vineyards, may be blended, and bears neither a vintage nor details
of grape variety.
Vino de la Tierra
The equivalent of the French vin de pays; table wine of deﬁned geographical origin, most usually from a
large, autonomous area (ie. Vino de la Tierra de Catalunya); it will show a vintage and give details of grape
variety.
DO (Denominación de Origen)
The equivalent of the French VDQS or AC and Italian DOC and covers wines made within the tightly
deﬁned parameters of speciﬁc Consejos Reguladores (regional regulating council).
DOCa (Deonominación de Origen Caliﬁcada)
As above and seen primarily in Rioja, where some years ago it was introduced with the idea of applying
it purely to the very top producers. Unfortunately, this provoked so much jealousy and back-biting that
virtually all Rioja is now DOCa!
Beyond this, speciﬁc mention should be made of Cava, which is the only DO based on winemaking method
(in essence these are sparkling wines made by the traditional method) rather than geography.
The ﬁnal two categories worthy of note, and the most recent, are Vinos de Pago and Vinos de Pago
Caliﬁcada (pago is the Spanish term for vineyard). These apply to single vineyard sites with a unique microclimate and outstanding quality record.
There are to date 63 DOs, and laudable as the system may be, there is one major downside to autonomies
running the system. This is that DO status can be awarded as an encouragement rather than as a recognition of real efforts, improvement and progress. The Canary Islands, for instance, have an astonishing nine
DOs, and yet surprisingly few wines of real quality and interest, beyond a handful of quite delightful dry
and dessert whites made from the malvasía variety. By the same token, Rioja is now administered by no
fewer than three autonomous governments: the region of Alavesa by the Basques, Alta by La Rioja, and
Baja by that of Navarra.
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Grape File
Indigenous Grape Varieties
Spain has a plethora of native grape varieties - perhaps as many as 600 - though all major production is
based on something like 20% of these.
The most important varieties are:
Airén
Albariño
Alicante
Bobal
Callet
Cariñena
Cencibel
Garnacha
Godello
Graciano
Loureiro
Macabeo
Malvasía
Mazuelo
Mencía
Monastrell
Moscatel
Palomino
Pansa Blanca
Parellada
Pedro Ximénez
Prieto Picudo
Samsó
Tempranillo
Tinta de Toro (tempranillo in Toro)
Tinto Aragonés
Tinto Fino (tempranillo in Ribera del Duero)
Torrontés
Treixadura
Verdejo
Viura
Xarel-lo
The best known of these is of course the
ubiquitous tempranillo, which some claim to
be related to pinot noir, the result of so many
monastic pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela (see Galicia). It means ‘the small early
one’, given its size and early ripening, but it
also has various different names according to
where it is grown, and can behave rather differently depending on where it is planted and
the soils and climate it has to adapt to.
Foreign Grape Varieties
Spaniards drink very little foreign wine (the
last available statistic shows consumption of
this at less than a third of 1%!). Most are
more than happy to drink domestically
produced cabernet, chardonnay, chenin blanc, gewürztraminer, malbec, merlot, petit verdot, sauvignon
blanc, syrah or blends thereof. Whilst international styles of Spanish wine can be quite impressive, quite
rightly, it is the indigenous grapes that are the focus of The Wine Society’s buyers, as these make the most
interesting wines.
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Regions
Aragón
This ancient kingdom immediately South of Navarra has Zaragoza as its major city and consists of four
DOs:
Calatayud
The most westerly and highest, specialising mainly in old-vine garnacha, which is usually dark and full-ﬂavoured
Campo de Borja
Whose excellent garnachas and tempranillos are usually juicier and more supple, with more pronounced red
fruit ﬂavours
Cariñena
The southernmost and most homogeneous
Somontano
The furthest east and coolest, in the foothills of the Pyrenees; concentrating most successfully on international styles made from gewürztraminer and chardonnay, but merlot and cabernet too.
The Balearic Islands
With a total population of around 900,000, these islands - which lie immediately south of Barcelona
- comprise Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Formentera, and Cabrera, together with a few other tiny ones. The
language - mallorquín - is similar to Catalan but rather thicker.
As ever with islands, individuality prospers; but unlike the Canaries, here common sense has prevailed and
there are just two DOs: Binissalem (with some 15 producers) and Plá I Llevant (with some 11).
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Prior to phylloxera there were some 27,000 hectares of vineyards in Mallorca but with tourism such a major
industry this is now more like 700 hectares. Its black varieties - manto negro, callet, fogoneu, and fogoneu
francés - produce dark, densely ﬂavoured reds in a similar vein to garnacha. Tempranillo and monastrell
and foreign varieties, notably cabernet, syrah, merlot, and pinot noir have also found there way here. For
whites, in addition to the indigenous moll, prensal blanco, moscatel/muscat, parellada, and macabeo, there
is also chardonnay.
The whites are equally interesting, with tremendous fragrance and often a certain minerality. But high local
demand and consequent high prices mean these are rarely seen beyond the islands.
Castilla y León
Valladolid, the principal city of this region was once the capital of Spain (before the move to Madrid in
1561) and remains in many ways the spiritual, religious, and military capital of Spain. It has ﬁve DOs:
El Bierzo
Way up in the north west, on the Galician border, specialises in godello and mencía, less successfully with
the former, but more so with the latter. Outside the DO proper there is the truly fascinating prieto picudo
grape variety, which can produce big, opulent reds with good structure and marvellous purple fruit ﬂavours.
Cigales
To the north of Valladolid, though mainly famous for its dry, brisk rosés has a couple of tiny producers who
major on spectacular old-vine tempranillos.
Rueda
To the south of the city, makes some of the best modern, commercial whites in the whole of Spain. These
come mainly from the gooseberry and greengage-scented verdejo variety (literally the large green one),
sauvignon blanc (it was the ﬁrst Spanish region to plant this in any quantity, and occasionally viura, to ﬁll
out the middle palate.
Toro
To the south west, is perhaps the most rural with the most extreme climate and its tinta de Toro wines can
be very rustic. There are a couple of top producers, mainly growing their vines on pebbly soil and producing
big, low-yield, black-fruit scented wines of enormous power (usually 14.5%), which age spectacularly in the
short-term.
Ribera del Duero
Is of course the star DO of the region. The Duero river modiﬁes the extremes of the climate in this high,
austere region which is prone to dramatic hailstorms. Denominated in 1985, its success is due to the quality
of the tinto ﬁno which produces dark, fresh, elegant, intense wines of good structure.
Sheep, together with the local piglets (all of which can be killed in their infancy) provide the main local diet,
which, with its marvellous local hams and black pudding, go so perfectly with its wines. Vegetarians will,
incidentally, do better in Rueda, whereas fans of major charcuterie will be in their element in Toro.
Vintages worthy of note:
2001 (now mature)
2003 (hot but in the right hands, also now glorious)
2004 (maturing nicely)
2005 (at its peak)
2006 (light but pleasingly approachable if not over-oaked)
2007 (was perhaps the area’s most difﬁcult vintage ever, and the verdict is still out given such few current
releases)
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Castilla la Nueva
An hour’s drive south of Madrid lies the giant DO of La Mancha - so large that its principal white grape
variety, the airén is the World’s number one grape variety. Production is accordingly enormous, but, consisting as it does of Spain’s central meseta, the climatology is simply too extreme to make wines of ﬁnesse
(hence the relatively new Vinos de Pago DOs) and the area has therefore catered for volume and low prices
instead.
Meanwhile, Valdepeñas DO lies at the southern tip of La Mancha and really is, as its name translates,
a valley of stones. Here, cencibel is king making correct, value-for-money wines. Beyond this, there is of
course Don Quijote and Manchego cheese; but in such a vast, relentlessly empty place it is hardly surprising
that the former went mad and that the latter provides just a smidgen of tangible reality.
Catalonia/Cataluña/Catalunya
A whole nation and trading empire prior to its uneasy incorporation into Spain, this autonomy comprises
four provinces: Barcelona, Gerona/Girona/, Lérida/Lleida, and Gerona/Girona. There is much to be said for
the Catalans, who are hard working and imaginative, speak their own language (a cross between medieval
French and Spanish) and whose culture is above all collective, centred on group activities - whether in their
dancing (the sardana, for example) or fondness for building human castles (castells) at ﬁesta time.
Culinary specialities include butifarra (a kind of boudin blanc/white pudding), calçots (chargrilled baby
spring onions) served with romesco (a puré of ground almonds, tomato and olive oil), sobrassada (an
unctuous, orange-coloured, spreadable, chorizo look-alike), and of course the ubiquitous tomaquet/pan
con tomate - which is simply a baguette, sliced in two and rubbed with raw garlic, drizzled with olive oil,
and into which ripe, beef tomato is rubbed - though woe betide he who questions the order in which this is
done, for everyone has their own, vehemently held theory!)
Principal DOs:
Alella
Just 20 minutes north of central Barcelona, originally granted DO status in 1956, is the second smallest DO
in the Spanish peninsula and in addition to making Cava, is home to the pansa blanca variety (a distant
cousin of the xarel-lo), and makes exuberantly fruity and quite distinctive whites.
Penedès
30 minutes west of Barcelona is the centre of the Cava industry. Its still whites are consequently made from
the same trio of local grapes, macabeo, parellada and xarel-lo together with chardonnay and are by and
large clean, lemony and short-lived.
Its reds, usually made from tempranillo, cariñena, garnacha, cabernet, cabernet franc, and merlot, can
often be dry and tannic.
Priorat(o)
On the other hand, originally granted DO status in 1954, is an hour south in Tarragona province and
produces truly memorable, deeply scented reds made from blackberry-ﬂavoured garnacha, grown on pure
schist (or llicorella) and often embellished with cariñena, cabernet, merlot and syrah. Some fragrant quirky
whites are also made here, usually from garnacha Bbanca, xarel-lo, pedro ximénez, and sometimes very old,
super lemony macabeo too.
Montsant
Immediately south, uses similar varieties but from totally different soil producing somewhat spicier styles.
Costers del Segre
Immediately north in Lérida/Lleida province, on the other side of the mountainous backbone that forms the
northern limit of Priorat(o) consists of three quite distinct zones. It has in the last decade, almost entirely
due to the efforts of Tomás Cusiné, acquired a serious following for its smooth, elegant, minerally and aromatic reds made essentially from tempranillo, merlot and cabernet. It also makes some fresh, poised whites.
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Empordà
The ﬁnal DO worthy of note or in Spanish El Ampurdán, is in Girona province just 20 kilometres short of
France. Its second largest city, Figueras/Figueres, is home to the fabulously loopy Dalí Museum and is also
a good place to eat mushrooms. The beautiful, rocky coastline is largely unspoilt. Here, on limestone and
sometimes slate soils, and with the aid of a brisk, all year around wind (the Tramontana) there are two types
of producers. Either boutique wineries making pricey wine from foreign grapes or growers who concentrate
on lively whites and reds from local varieties such as garnacha blanca, macabeo, and muscat for the whites
and light, minerally, fruit led reds made invariably from garnacha and cariñena.
Galicia
This picturesque area is the logical geographic
extension of Portugal. Roughly the size of
Belgium, it consists of four provinces: La
Coruña, Lugo, Pontevedra and O(u)rense.
With its fabulous Atlantic coastline, west and
north, this is a veritable ﬁsh and shellﬁsh paradise on its extended coastline. But the interior,
into which few venture, is as spectacular with
huge valleys, mountains and rivers and
big-ﬂavoured culinary traditions based on pork
and the traditional killing (matanza) of homereared pigs.
The language (gal(l)ego) is a combination of
Portuguese and Spanish with major Celtic
inﬂuences, no doubt due to a shared ﬁshing
culture, and is reﬂected in its deep-rooted
musical traditions which involve bagpipes and
country dancing.
This is, however, a damp part of the world with more rainfall than Scotland and its vast tracts of forest
- primarily eucalyptus and maritime pine - have made it the centre of important wood-based industries such
as chipboard and plywood. MDF was, incidentally, invented here.
Rías Baixas DO, the home of albariño is located in ﬁve separate sub regions spread over the lower west
Atlantic coast: In its heartland, the Salnés Valley in Pontevedra, the wines tend to be pure albariño, planted
on granite and trained on high trellises to keep the grapes ventilated and away from the often soggy
ground. But the region now stretches right down to the Portuguese border where other grape varieties
such as loureiro (which has a delicious, subtle rose-petal character) and treixadura (which has a distinctive
catty apple character) ﬁnd their way into a myriad different blends.
The popularity of albariño is such that from perhaps 20 wineries here in the mid 1980s, the number has
now swollen to over 400. The albariño grape variety, in its natural/uninterfered-with state should taste of
ripe, often baked, sweet apple, although perhaps due to the inﬂuence of the Atlantic, it can have an underlying ﬂinty, spicy character.
With bottle age, the wine becomes quite golden in colour and takes on a marked petrol character. Because
of this and perhaps because of the inﬂuence of pilgrims from northern Europe to Santiago de Compostela,
some have linked the grape with riesling.
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Galicia: The Interior
The DOs of the interior comprise Monterrei, Ribeiro, Valdeorras and Ribeira Sacra.
Ribeira Sacra
(Sacred riverbanks), in Lugo Province devotes itself primarily to red wines made from the very awkward
mencía variety, which has yet to be properly ‘tamed’. Galicia’s emblematic black variety, it goes very well
with the pork-based dishes beloved of the interior and is often served in small saucers or tazas and referred
to as Ribeiro - the region best-known for its production. But perhaps what it does best is light, dry, appley
whites made from treixadura, often blended with palomino.
Monterrei
Meantime, is in a straight line east from Vigo, lies in the province of O(u)rense and is a DO whose northern
extreme is virtually Mediterranean in climate but whose southern and more interesting sector is Atlantic
and so far south that it’s almost in Portugal. The ﬁrst Spanish settlers of California came from this region
taking vines with them and it is curious that this gorgeous but unassuming Galican region gave its name to
Monterrey, CA.
Here, a handful of producers major on doña branca (a white variety all about pure lemon and with major
acidity), treixadura, and godello (unctuous peach and greengage). Combined, they produce truly excellent
wines of body, subtlety (honeyed almond, lavender and lemony apple) which truly grow with bottle age.
Finally, at the eastern-most central extreme, lies Valdeorras the homeland of Spain’s best godellos, which,
in the right hands makes superb whites.
La Rioja
This most famous of all Spanish wine producing areas now comprises some 600 wineries.
Its creation is largely due to the French, who
came here in the late 19th century to escape
phylloxera. They revolutionised its winemaking and two of the most prestigious bodegas,
Murrieta and Riscal, made Marchioneses in
recognition of their achievements. Prior to
this friendly invasion, the region had primarily
been a producer of white wines. As Spain’s
primary ﬁne-wine producing region, Rioja
deserves a guide in its own right.
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