Spanish Wine List | The Wine Centre

Spanish Wines

Rioja is the big name of Spain, best known for its spicy Tempranillo reds matured in American oak. But Ribera del Duero is producing some real gems to match and even surpass the best of Rioja, using both French (Tionio) and American oak (Jaros).

It is often the oak-spice smell and taste which we love and come to recognise as Spain and Tempranillo, rather than the grape itself. For the record, Tempranillo smells and tastes of red fruits, notably strawberries. Only when oak-aged and/or blended with a little Grenache or Mazuelo does it take on its own particular Spanish spice and cream flavour. Tempranillo clearly has an affinity for oak, and the best of them are ideal with roasted meats. In Rioja the style is relatively light compared to Ribera del Duero, and while the former is ideal with lamb, the latter is better with game and goose.

Spain also has a reputation for producing decent, richly flavoured Rioja Blanco made from the Viura grape - a superb match for the national Paella dish. The crisper whites from Penedes are more suited to the local fresh fish, and sparkling Cava from the same region can be very good value and an ideal aperitif. The pink Rosado wines can work as well with rice dishes (especially with saffron) and the more flavoursome fish. Yet the most exciting white wine of the last few years in my opinion is Albarino from Rias Baixas: buy a bottle or two of the Lagar de Cervera 2006, it`s deliciously aromatic and tropical, with weight and freshness in equal measures. The Palacio de Fefinanes is even better, with taut, racy acidity.

Then there’s sherry, the fortified wine of Jerez: the pale, dry Manzanilla and Fino aperitif wines, so good with olives or salted nuts (fresh anchovies make a delicious change); the amber-coloured Amontillado, in Jerez quite usually drunk with the meat course, here in UK enjoyed with a mushroom soup starter or simply as a tipple with almond and brazil nuts; and there are the dark, sweet sherries, of which the best is Oloroso Abocado and Pedro Ximenez (with chocolate and other puddings – and typically here in UK with the Christmas pudding). The myriad other styles of sherry are simply too many to list or even mention, yet such is their interest we will surely have to do so someday!

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