If a wine buyer, retailer or sommelier was looking to freshen up and bring some excitement to their Spanish wine range where would you suggest they should be looking and why?
First, think about your customer. If they are in the City of London, and looking to impress clients, then you already know what to sell them. Spain has its big names and traditional styles in Rioja, Ribera del Duero, and less traditional but just as significant Priorat. They won’t necessarily want to deviate.
White wines from Spain are one area to focus on. Nothing to do with overoaked whites. And not just Albariños from Rías Baixas and Verdejos from Rueda which are mainly clean, fresh and drinkable (there are some of course, which are so much more than that). I’m thinking of Garnacha Blanca, and especially from Terra Alta in Catalunya. And also from Catalunya, Xarel.lo.
This has gone from being the unpronounceable curiosity to a new future as a wine with lovely freshness, and a real capacity to age. I can’t fail to mention the Vinos de Pasto from the Sherry district. This is typically the Palomino grape which will have been aged under flor, in Sherry casks, to gain a nutty, herbal complexity. Great by itself, or with food. An excellent introduction to Sherry without frightening anyone.
What do you think have been the big exciting changes to take place in Spain over the last five years?
Sarah Jane Evans MW new book being released this summer
I’ve just finished writing ‘The Wines of Central and Southern Spain’ coming out from the Classic Wine Library this summer. It covers central and southern Spain, but also Catalunya and the Islands. I should have finished it five years ago, but Covid rather got in the way of my travels. What a change in five years!
First there are places that are on the radar now, that weren’t then. Think about the Canary Islands: thanks in particular to Suertes del Marqués and Envínate Tenerife already had a profile in the UK. Now La Palma, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria are getting their time in the sun.
Valencia used to be the home of oranges, but now it and its neighbour Alicante are producing particularly exciting wines with indigenous varieties. The biggest change is the diversity. Tasting at the Wines from Spain show there will be a remarkable stylistic characters, making for very exciting choices.
What is driving those changes?
I talk about a new generation driving the change, but in fact it’s a couple of generations who are making the difference. It’s nothing particularly Spanish, it’s a global movement of growers and winemakers with enquiring minds, wanting to express their own place in their own way, and they have the confidence to do it. In many areas they are forming small dynamic groups for mutual support and marketing.
They have discovered there’s a receptive audience. Journalists like myself, sommeliers, on-trade and off-trade are building personal relationships with them. Instagram and What’s App have made communications much more democratic, so a tiny business can have big influence if it can spend some time on social media. This openness is perhaps more obvious because of the contrast with all the years when Spain lived through the dictatorship and then did not join Europe until the 1980s. Its blossoming has been all the more vivid.
Are there wines and regions that are still to make it to the UK that are ready to be discovered?
Spain's heritage mixed with a new generation of winemakers is what makes it so exciting says Sarah Jane Evans MW
Yes, a few but in general while we may skim over the top, we do not necessarily go deeply within each area. Writing the book, it has reminded me that though Catalunya is so well known, actually the different DOs don’t roll off our tongues when ordering wine: who asks for Costers del Segre, Pla de Bages, Empordà, Conca de Barberà – or Terra Alta? We see precious few of those.
I am constantly banging on about Penedès. Of course there’s Clàssic Penedès, the sparkling wine category, and the area is the home of Cava and top classic Spanish sparkling wine. But Penedès is so much more, and it’s a bit of a secret in plain sight. Málaga has exceptional dry whites from Pedro Ximénez, which seems a contradiction, but it’s not.
One area that hardly appears are the Balearics.There are some fine wines there but they hardly need to bother to sell to us, given their domestic market. What I would say is that there is so much diversity nowadays, each DO or subregion repays close study. You may not like one wine from an area, but another producer will do it differently. Keep tasting, researching, asking questions. And I should add that with the range of trade complications outlined in my gloomy paragraph below, we are at risk of finding that wines and regions are less available, not more.
There is the great opportunity to do so at the Wines from Spain Annual tasting on 1 April - what are some the highlights there that you are most looking forward to seeing?
For me Spain is always about the people. Catching up with winemakers and importers is professionally important, but more than anything it’s a pleasure to see them again.The current market is difficult and it is useful to share ideas, and find out about their plans for the future. I enjoy getting recommendations for friends ‘Have you tried Wine X on Table Y?’
Wines of Spain tasting is taking place in Manchester and London in April
It’s also great to talk to retailers about what they are selling, what customers are talking about. At the annual tasting there is also a self-pour table and that is often a good way to start. In terms of creature comforts there’s a Cava bar during the day, with a selection of different Cavas from Reservas to Cava de Paraje, with a jamón carver alongside.
What are you doing at the show - and looking to present yourself?
I had to miss last year’s show so I am looking forward to being able to attend, and especially to visit the new venue. In terms of tastings, I’m hosting a tasting of rare varieties at 3.30pm. It is well-timed for anyone who has got through the day and feels they still haven’t quite caught up with the new and different. I’ll be showing a Giró, a Picapoll (not a Picpoul, though it sounds like it), a Vijariego, and a Hondarribi Beltza. This is a variety that you learn about for WSET exams, but there aren’t too many chance to taste 100% HB.
Then there’s a Pedro Ximénez, which isn’t in the least rare, but it is very unusual in the example I have chosen which has nothing to do with Jerez. And finally there’s a Trousseau, which is not even Spanish, and it’s a real rule-breaker as it is not permitted in the denomination where it is grown. All very illegal. It should be a very lively tasting.
I’m also showing a lively range of Cavas of different styles at 4.30pm. Cava has had a tough time, some of it self-inflicted. But I firmly believe if people can only taste what is happening now Cava will win back audience. Of course every Cava Superior, that’s everything above the ‘basic 9- months-aged Cava, is now organically certified.
As someone who has made Spain one of their spiritual wine homes - what is it about the country, the people, the culture that makes you want to keep on going back?
I first lived in Spain when I was 18. I discovered Sherry there. I then studied at Cambridge where you would read out your essay to your supervisor over a glass of fino. That’s where my taste for Sherry began. Coming from chilly grey London Spain was a delight. I loved the people, the history, the food and the language. I’m a much more expressive person in Spanish, more optimistic, and I certainly wave my hands about more. I have kept on returning for family holidays and for work, which explains why I keep writing books about the country. It has lived an extraordinary time from the ending of the Civil War, through to joining Europe, then a vivid blossoming of art, gastronomy - and wine.
What do you see as the biggest challenges that Spanish producers and regions need to wake up to / address and why?
Wines of Spain's annual tasting in London takes place at Illuminate, Science Museum, on April 1 between 10am and 5.30pm
If we are talking about doing business with the UK, Spain’s producers know them all too well. Consumers are keen to buy Spanish wines, and importers and retailers to sell, but what lie between us and them are the ramifications of Brexit. Plus all the duty changes, and EPR. And the NI costs which are having a side effect of retailers and the on-trade bars reducing their ranges.
It’s not easy doing business with the UK, at the moment, especially for small producers. I would add that Spain’s continued presence in bulk wine and the ‘value’ end of the market makes it harder to build its profile at the top end.
In terms of winemaking, there was the moment where producers understandably felt the need to invest in international varieties and new oak. Fortunately that time is past. The choice is so much greater now that producers may need to be giving more guidance about the wines they make. The Consejos reguladores in turn need to be flexible. If the super-traditional Jerez is proving that it can move with the times, then so can others. Of course, the appellation programme was set up to protect the consumer and the region itself. But it can be too rigid.
What would you like to see Spanish producers do more of in the years to come?
Continue to make delicious wines! But seriously there has to be a resolution to the bulk wine problem. It’s huge. Take this quote from the Cooperativas de Castilla-La Manchawhich I have used in my book, “we make 5% of the world’s wine”. They go on to point out that they “make annually more than 50% of all Spanish wine”.
Let’s look at another big number: 54% of total Spanish wine exports in volume are in bulk, and mostly from Castilla-La Mancha. Over the last couple of decades cooperatives have moved into high quality wine – notably Martin Codax in Galicia. Think of the possibility for transforming at least some if not all of the bulk liquid into wines distributed to supermarkets internationally.
What would you like to see UK importers and distributors doing more with Spain in the coming years?
The Wines from Spain tasting in Manchester takes place The Fountain House on April 28 between 10.30am and 4.30pm
Stop saying ‘its’s great value’. Let’s find another USP. Stop selling Rioja at low, low prices. (Easy to say, I know; I understand the pressures from consumers). Start treating Cava like a wine with terroir character. The recent regulations mean that one can begin to talk about the origins. Tell the stories behind the wines. Telling stories means that it is best to visit if you can. I am aware that I benefited greatly from generic trips organised by ICEX when I was starting out when people had budgets.
Things are not nearly so generous now. So it maybe a matter of getting advice from the importer and arranging a private visit during a holiday. At the Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino we are very conscious of this and have plans for the future.
Finally I’d come back to the diversity. This is a delight but also a nightmare for a consumer to navigate. A really good wine by the glass programme and tasting sessions are great ways to go. Enthusiasm is the best driver of sales, and it’s impossible not to be enthusiastic about what is happening in Spain.
* Sarah Jane Evans MW is Chairman of the Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino, and Co-Chair of the Decanter World Wine Awards.
* The Wines from Spain Annual Tasting in London is taking place at Illuminate, Science Museum, from 10am until 5.30pm. For full details, including information on exhibitors, wineries and wines presented and how to register go to: https://annualtasting.foodswinesfromspain.com/.
