Spain

Today’s Spanish Wines: A Study In Change

More than anywhere else on the planet right now, the wine industry of Spain is in transition. The change began as recently as the 1990s, when Spanish winemakers began to embrace the single-vineyard concept — the idea of respecting terroir rather than blending grapes from different areas within a region — and planting international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon. As Spanish wines began attracting higher prices, the industry became market-driven, sometimes sacrificing the distinctiveness of Spain’s wine culture in the pursuit of profit. The cooperatives themselves are becoming more corporate as they develop the investments to fuel this booming progress. Even the architecture for new bodegas (wine estates) is avant garde and forward-looking.

Today, traditions dating back centuries are still at odds with new technology and viticultural procedures. It is a thrilling time…and — as with any change — a painful one. The big question remains: can old and new be blended to produce wines that appeal to international tastes, yet preserve the native character of the grape and the terroir? For answers, it is important to understand the climate — literal and metaphysical — of these key Spanish wine regions.

Say ¡Hola! to Rioja

A mark of its distinction among all Spanish wine regions is Rioja’s designation as the country’s only Denominación de Origen Calificada (DOC), or Qualified Denomination of Origin. Located close to the French border, just 200 miles from Bordeaux, Spain’s most prestigious wine region has strong ties with the most acclaimed wine region of France. In the 1800s, the blight of phylloxera struck Bordeaux, driving several French winemakers southward into Spain, seeking a similar terroir for growing their grapes. Their influence lingers to this day.

Some 80% of Rioja’s grapes are red-wine grapes, with Tempranillo and Garnacha predominating. Tempranillo, in particular, is sensitive to terroir, and given Rioja’s immense diversity of microclimates, the character of the grape varies tremendously throughout the region. Blends are common, and many wines are aged in American oak. As styles change and modernize, however, more and more Rioja winemakers are departing from traditional techniques, with such innovations as aging in new French oak and a focus on bolder, more concentrated flavors. Another new concept is the tendency now for Rioja wines to be vineyard-based, rather than selected from a number of independent growers.

Rioja wines are assigned to three categories: crianza, not only the youngest, but also by far the most common and least expensive; reserva; and the finest wines, gran reserva. A small group of winemakers here have begun to eschew DO regulations in the way that Super Tuscans disregard the wine laws of Italy. Their alta expresion wines comprise another trend to watch in Spain today.

The Spain of Legend: Ribera del Duero

Welcome to one of the great red-wine regions of Spain. Looking out over this stark, rugged landscape of looming mesas and harsh plateaus, Miguel de Cervantes took up his pen and began writing Spain’s greatest classic novel, Don Quixote — a tumultuous epic that epitomizes medieval Spain. It’s no wonder the story was inspired in this region along the Duero River, sandwiched between Madrid and Rioja, where stone castles and fortresses still gaze down unforgivingly on a scrabble of rocks through which knotted old grapevines struggle to survive.

A wine-producing region since 1864, when a Bordeaux winemaker planted Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec here, Ribera del Duero did not come into prominence until the middle of the last century. Beginning in the 1950s, the Vega Sicilia bodega embarked on a serious effort to produce highquality wines, blending these international varieties with the native Tinto Fino. Today, Vega Sicilia is acknowledged not only as Spain’s greatest wine, but as one of the finest red wines in the world. Ribera del Duero’s other prestigious bodega, Pesquera, became known for its unfiltered, Tempranillo-based wines during the 1970s; by the 1980s, these two estates had put Ribera del Duero in contention with Rioja as the finest wine region in Spain.

Roughly one-quarter the size of Rioja, Ribera del Duero is almost exclusively a red-wine region, although a small amount of rosé is also produced. More than 85% of the harvest is Tinto Fino, a genetic variation of Tempranillo that is usually blended with other varieties — including albillo, a white-wine grape. The ancient vines of the region concentrate the flavors of dark berries, plum, licorice, leather and mocha, and the best Ribera del Duero wines are a contradiction: highly structured yet supple, robust yet soft, rich yet rustic and loaded with fruit. The subtlety of Ribera del Duero wines is often attributed to tshe practice of aging the wine in used American oak barrels.

As in Rioja, Ribera del Duero wines are classified as crianza, reserva or gran reserva, depending on the quality of their grapes and how long they are aged. For these designations, look for a stamp on the back or neck label of the wine. The higher-quality reserva and gran reserva wines are produced only during good vintage years.

Catalonia in Capsule

The rich mix of cultures that distinguishes Catalonia from all other parts of Spain dates at least to the 12th and 13th centuries, when the kingdom of Aragon ruled, not only this part of Spain, but also a section of France and all of Sicily and Naples. The Catalonian capital, Barcelona, continues to serve as a key Mediterranean port. The Catalonian wine regions of Penedès and Priorato have benefited from their proximity to Barcelona and their exposure to the continued influx of ideas from other lands.

Penedès: in the eye of a storm of change. Given the cosmopolitan nature of Catalonia as a whole, it is perhaps not surprising that the seat of Spain’s wine revolution is located at its heart — in the wine district of Penedès. Here, Jean León founded a vineyard that would change the face — and taste — of Spanish wine. Once known almost solely as the source of sparkling Cava wines such as Freixenet and Codorniu, Penedès now generates a number of high-quality table wines, many based on a noble international variety: Cabernet Sauvignon.

Today, the leading bodega belongs to the Torres family, whose holdings include the vineyard once owned by Jean León. It was Miguel Torres, Jr., who is credited with Penedès’ most famous wine, the award-winning “Black Label” Mas La Plana Cabernet Sauvignon.

Priorato: the answer to a prayer. The change in the Spanish wine industry is evident nowhere more than in tiny, mountainous Priorato, vying with Toro as the most exciting region in Spain today. Sitting southwest of Barcelona, it is known for its rocky slate soils, steep slopes and gnarled and knotted old vines. Indeed, the vineyards of Priorato predate even the Romans. In the Middle Ages, a villager is said to have seen angels on a stairway to heaven here — giving the name Scala Dei (Stairway of God) to a Carthusian monastery founded here by Alfonso II of Aragón in 1163. Today, the monastery is a winery, but the name Priorato (Priory) remains.

After its legendary beginnings, the region fell into obscurity until as recently as the 1990s. Until that time, Priorato vineyards were mostly small and independent plots from which the owners sold their grapes to local cooperatives. Today, thanks to investments of capital and equipment, Priorato lays claim to some of the nation’s most prized wines — almost exclusively red and mostly dry, although a handful of sweet, Port-like wines are also produced. The native grapes Garnacha and Cariñena are the favored varieties of the region, though Cabernet Sauvignon is rivaling the latter as the second-most-planted variety. These grapes are sometimes blended with Merlot, Syrah and Tempranillo, and often aged in new French oak. The resulting wines are among the most fullbodied in the country: intense, richly colored, tannic and complex, exhibiting flavors of black raspberry, licorice and chocolate. When selecting a Priorato wine, be aware that the classifications of Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva do not apply here.

Toro, Toro, Toro!

Every realtor knows the expression, “Location, location, location” — where the property sits is as important as the property itself. As the vineyards of Rioja and Ribera del Duero have grown increasingly expensive, pioneering young winemakers have looked farther afield for places to build their new estates. Certainly, that accounts at least in part for the astonishing and rapid rise of Toro as Spain’s surprising “hottest” region.

Located on the banks of the Duero, west of Ribera, Toro is a region of rolling pastureland and fields of grain, through pockets of which grow gnarled Tinto Fino vines. As the industry’s new discovery, this red-wine region is benefiting from capital investment from heavy hitters such as Vega Sicilia, and winemaking techniques here are modernizing rapidly. As a result, from a reputation for heavy wines high in alcohol, Toro is now becoming known for lush, full-bodied, peppery wines reminiscent of France’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape and other wines of the southern Rhône Valley. They also represent some of Spain’s best values.

Known for White Wine and Bagpipes: Rías Baixas

If you were led blindfolded into Galicia, you might think you were on the windswept coast of Ireland or Wales instead of Spain. Spain’s northwestern province, located above Portugal on the Atlantic coast, Galicia has long Celtic roots that continue to be expressed in its own language, its cuisine — even its gaita, a bagpipe-like musical instrument! Here’s something else that sets Galicia apart: the Rías Baixas region at its southern tip is the only white-wine region in Spain.

A spectacularly beautiful region, Rías Baixas is known almost exclusively for its Albariño wines, which burst on the international scene during the 1990s. At around that time, a new generation of ambitious Galego winemakers replanted their vineyards, hired experts from elsewhere in Europe and modernized their winemaking technology — for example, shifting to the use of temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks. The quality of Albariño wines improved dramatically, so that now they can barely keep pace with international demand.

Known in Spain as “wines of the sea,” Albariño wines benefit from the marine moisture, from which the grapes are often protected by support canopies known as parras. Rías Baixas actually consists of three subregions: Val do Salnés, Condado de Tea and O Rosal. Unlike Spanish reds, however Albariño wines are known by their variety rather than their region, and there are no reserva or gran reserva Albariños.The New Kid on the Block: Cabernet Sauvignon.

The trend in Spain away from native varieties in favor of international ones is nowhere more dramatically stated than in the emergence of Cabernet Sauvignon as an important planting, particularly in the Catalonian region of Priorato and in Ribera del Duero. In Priorato, Cabernet Sauvignon adds structure to Cariñena and Garnacha. And in Ribera del Duero, the grape is used in the blend for Vega Sicilia, Spain’s most prestigious wine. Based on the variety’s success in the past decade, you can expect to see plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon continue to rise throughout the nation in the years ahead.

You Say Carignan, I Say Cariñena

However you pronounce it, this indigenous Spanish grape performs better in its native soil than in France, where it’s called Carignan. Muscular, bold and intensely colored, Cariñena results in wines that are big in the mouth, with concentrated fruit flavors, and strong in structure. The grape is often used blended with Priorato’s other major grape, Garnacha (Grenache in France).

Garnacha: The Spanish Grape that’s Famous in France

The proximity of Catalonia to Bordeaux accounts for the popularity of two native Spanish grapes across the border. Though it is one of the two major grapes of Catalonia’s Priorato region, Garnacha achieved its fame in France, where it’s known as Grenache. In Spain, the variety is usually partnered with other wines, imparting richness, body and fruitiness to the blend.

The best known of the three types of Garnacha is Garnacha Tinto, which most closely resembles France’s Grenache — and which is one of the favorite red-wine grapes throughout Spain. Also known as Alicante, Garnacha Tintorero is a more dense, deeply hued and tannic blending grape. And a white Garnacha, Garnacha Blanc, is also cultivated, though in limited quantities.

Spain’s Favorite Son: Tempranillo

Spanish wine aficionados are well familiar with Tempranillo, Spain’s quintessential native red-wine grape. Though it appears in other lands under other names, Tempranillo is the grape with which Spain is most identified — like the Sangiovese of Italy, the Cabernet Sauvignon of Bordeaux or the Pinot Noir of Burgundy. Many of the finest wines of Rioja and Ribera del Duero are based on Tempranillo, which can stand on its own or add bouquet and balance to a blend with other varieties, most notably Garnacha. Known for its black raspberry aroma, Tempranillo produces wines with excellent structure and deep garnet color.

The Albino Wine: Albariño

In a land of red wines, one white-wine variety stands out as an international contender: Albariño. Somewhat resembling Riesling with its clean, crisp flavors and redolence of lemons, almonds, kiwi and ginger, Albariño at its best in Rías Baixas, in Spain’s strongly Celtic Galicia region. In fact, it is rarely found in any other region of the country!

To create Albariño wines, Rías Baixas winemakers handle the grapes minimally and don’t barrel-ferment the wine, in order toekeep the flavors pure. The result is a refreshing, perfumed wine that is both crisp and creamy, a wine to be consumed young and which is an ideal companion for seafood. No wonder it is one of the most demanded — and expensive — white-wine grapes in Spain!

Spain’s Expansive Vineyard Land

Spain is a major power in the world of wine, boasting roughly 20% of all the vineyards of Europe. In fact, Spain has more vineyard land than anywhere else in the world! It is one of the world’s top five producers in terms of volume—and a world-class producer in terms of quality, too. Spain, Home to the Number One Grape Variety in the World If you were asked to name the world’s most planted grape variety, how would you respond? Merlot (it’s easy to love!), classic Cabernet Sauvignon, or perhaps the ubiquitous Chardonnay. Oddly enough, the number one planted grape variety on the plant is Airén, a wine grape similar to Ugni Blanc that is used to create white wine, blended with Tempranillo to create light reds, and used for brandy. Several hundred thousand acres of Central Spain are covered with Airén.  Information courtesy of Decanter magazine.

A Primer on Spanish Wines

Spain’s wine laws dictate five classifications based on quality and aging. The 5 basic levels of wine are:

1. Vino de mesa or table wine
2. Vino joven, or young wine, usually from a qualified DO region (Denominación de Origen meaning the set of laws governing the quality of Spanish wine) often with a bit of aging, but not enough to be a “crianza”
3. Crianza is a wine that has aged 2 years with at least 6 months of aging in oak
4. Reserva quality wine, normally has aged at least 3 years with at least 1 year in oak cask, 2 years in the bottle and are made from top vintages
5. Gran Reserva quality wine has aged at least 2 years in oak and 3 years in the bottle this wine is made from exceptional vintages