The Wines from Spain Annual Tasting is always a highlight in my calendar. This year’s event at the Science Museum proved once again how much Spain has to offer, with over 600 wines on show from both importers and individual producers.
As well as spending time at the tasting tables, I headed to two of the day’s masterclasses highlighting some of the most exciting wines coming out of Spain: Beth Willard looking at ‘New Trends’; and Sarah Jane Evans MW focusing on ‘Rare Varietals’.
Amongst the diversity, these were the themes and wines which stood out:
Gastronomic and ageworthy whites
Willard kicked off her masterclass by exclaiming that “white wines are so exciting in Spain at the moment!” Traditionally focused on red wine in terms of both consumption and production, Spain is currently seeing a “really exciting movement of gastronomic white wines,” she continued, including those with potential to age.
Nick Groszek (Moreno Wines) with Astobiza Malkoa 2016
A great example of this new wave of whites is Astobiza Malkoa 2016, an almost ten-year old Txakoli. After 20 months on its lees in concrete egg, the complexity and mouthfilling texture is totally unlike the usual spritzy young Txakoli style. Astobiza Estate is one of the 36 ‘Grandes Pagos de España’, a group of producers dedicated to making high-quality, single estate wines. Malkoa is the flagship of its aged wines collection, released only after a few years to ensure positive evolution in bottle.
Wines made from Airén are similarly moving away from their traditional style. One of the most planted wine grapes in the world, Airén is generally used for high volume, neutral wines and brandy. In the right hands, however, and particularly from old vines, it can produce textural, gastronomic wines. Willard thinks this is another thing Spain is excelling at – understanding that “not everything needs to be super aromatic and immediate” – wines can rather be about texture and ageability.
Finca Villalobillos Airén Pie Franco 2021 is made from ungrafted vines planted by Bodegas García de Lara in 1935 in Castilla-La Mancha. The unoaked wine shows a lively acidity with lovely texture and complexity after a few years in bottle, while the fruit on the Finca Villalobillos Airén Pie Franco Fermentado en Barrica 2022 is enhanced by subtle oak. Both reveal beautiful concentration and a very long finish.
A return to roots
In keeping with global trends, both Willard and Evans remarked how producers in several Spanish regions are increasingly turning away from overly oaked styles and returning to traditional winemaking practices.
In Rioja that return goes hand in hand with a revival of old vineyards and indigenous varieties. Field blends of co-planted white and red varieties are becoming more common – Viñedos El Pacto Ojo de Gallo 2022 is a perfumed example with pure wild strawberries and juicy fruit from 100-year-old vineyards in Rioja Alta. Struggling Vines Sasikume 2023 is a chillable red with crunchy sour cherries made from Maturana Tinta, which makes up less than 0.5% of plantings. Ijalba, one of the first organic Rioja estates, and Bodegas Juan Carlos Sancha’s Ad Libitum range both champion the replanting of ancient varieties in Rioja. Ijalba Maturana Blanca 2023 is subtly oaked with floral, peach and melon notes. Ad Libitum Maturana Tinta 2019 shows dark plums and cherries and a concentrated palate.
A treasure trove of varieties
With purportedly more than 500 grape varieties in Spain, producers are certainly embracing this “treasure trove of varieties”, as Evans puts it.
Hondarrabi Beltza from Bizkaiko Txakolina may not roll off the tongue, but Gorka Izagirre Ilun 2023 shows how good reds from the cooler regions of Spain can be, with crunchy red fruit on the nose coupled with some ripeness on the palate.
Pepe Mendoza’s Casa Agrícola is an estate in Alicante I very much enjoyed visiting a couple of years ago. Pepe Mendoza Giró de Abargués 2021 is one of the wines Evans picked out to show the surprising delicacy of Mendoza’s wines from Alicante. Giró’s heritage as a grape variety is somewhat disputed but whether it travelled to Sardinia via southern Spain or is related to Garnacha, it is well worth trying. Made from very old vines on stony soils, this example bursts with ripe dark fruits overlaid with mouthfilling spice.
David Sánchez, commercial director at Albet i Noya with El Fanio 2023
Xarel.lo is still best known as a Cava grape but is increasingly being enjoyed as a still white from its home region of Penedès. Albet i Noya El Fanio 2023 is a Xarel.lo made from 80 year old vines on shallow sandy soils, aged in acacia wood, concrete eggs and stainless steel showing a hint of honey and fennel.
Alemany i Corrió Principia Mathematica 2023 is a small production Xarel.lo from a French husband and wife team who bring a Burgundian approach to their winemaking, resulting in delicate oak and layered stone fruit.
Hamish Robertson (Moreno Wines) with Diatomists Sotovelo
Unfortified Palomino has been growing in popularity in recent years, with some premium ‘vinos de pasto’ from the sherry region only available on allocation. Diatomists Sotovelo 2022, aged statically for a year under a layer of flor, is a great example, salty, mineral and moreish. Evans highlighted a similar wine made from Pedro Ximénez in her masterclass: Los Insensatos de la Antehojuela Parcela El Lechinar 2023 from Bodegas Del Pino in Montilla-Moriles, aged in tinajas with a little flor, showing a light salinity alongside Mirabelle plums and a subtle nuttiness.
Island wines continue to impress, including Bodegas Viñátigo Vijiriego Blanco 2022 from pre-phylloxeric vines in Tenerife, a golden-hued, smoky white; Vinos Atlante Blanco 2021, a flinty and saline field blend of Listán Blanco and Albillo Criolla from 150-year-old vines in Tenerife; and Can Axartell Rosado 2024, an easy drinking rosé blend of Manto Negro, Callet and Pinot Noir from Mallorca.
As Evans concludes, there is so much to discover in Spain. While the phylloxera epidemic resulted in a focus on high yielding varieties and clones in the twentieth century, now, she says, “Spain is blossoming into a much wider range of clones, a much wider range of varieties, and it’s super exciting.”
The Wines from Spain Annual Tasting will also take place in Manchester on 28th April, with wine walks led by Jane Clare and guided tastings with Sarah Jane Evans MW.
Registration and the online catalogue can be found here:
