Tonight, Let's Go Spanish

Here’s why wines from Spain deserve a place in your collection.

- Jeff Jenssen and Mike DeSimone

IN AN ADMITTEDLY wildly unscientific study conducted over the past 25 years, we believe we’ve uncovered something of an enigma—Spain. To elaborate: when asking oenophiles about Spanish wine, we tend to hear mention of just two (yes, two) esteemed producers: Vega Sicilia and Pingus. Now, this pair of outstanding Ribera del Duero wineries are certainly deserving of their collective accolades, but the fact that savvy drinkers can name fewer than a handful of elite winemakers from the fourth-largest (by area) European nation is just weird.

Home to over 100 wine regions, Spain produces red, white, rose and sparkling wines across the entire quality and price spectrum. Just two, Rioja and Priorat, have received the highest designation, DOCa (which translates to ‘denomination of qualified origin’), a step above the 68 DOlevel (‘denomination of origin’) regions that are the backbone of Spain’s top-tier wine industry. For the past 20 years, the Iberian nation has also permitted single-estate wines of high quality to be labelled with the special vino de pago (VP) designation, which indicates an exclusive area limited to the confines of a wine estate. With stringent requirements regarding permitted grape varieties, ageing time, alcohol levels and even the number of kilograms of grapes per hectare, the country is seriously committed to protecting the quality and reputation of its vinous output.