 Spain now provides us with the best value in Europe. Quality is miles ahead of where it was even ten years ago and developing apace. Although best known in the UK for its flagship region, Rioja, actually it is among the other vineyard areas where the most exciting progress is to be found. You will usually find upwards of ten Spanish regions represented in a Wines of Interest list. We extend our "indigenous only" rule as applied to Italy, to Iberia as well bar the odd splash of something in a blend. We fully appreciate that there are some super Chardonnays, Merlots et al grown here, but feel strongly that if Spain is to maintain her delicious and vital point of difference, that purpose is not best served by imitating the New World. In any case, Spain's best wines are wonderful expressions of Tempranillo, Garnacha and Monastrell (aka Mourvedre), sometimes by individual variety, sometimes blended. They are very food friendly with vivid flavours and increasing depth and complexity as you ascend the quality ladder. The practice of ageing in oak, as employed in Rioja, is sometimes thought, by association, to extend to all the other DO's, but it seems to be used much more sparingly away from the heart of this tradition.
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