Clearly there are many regional differences to consider, but the reality is that at in this price category, producer technique is a more significant style factor. Many of the wines in this release share a resemblance of abundantly ripe and/or raisined fruit, and soft, plush tannins, making for wines with broad commercial appeal. Indeed if there’s anything to complain about, it’s the similarity of styles available. This can be explained partly because the same LCBO tasters are responsible for selecting all of the wines (a major defect in our monopoly system), and partly because that’s what Spain is producing in commercial abundance. 

I’ve said it before, but in my view, Spain is still well behind many old world, and even quite a few new world wine producing countries on the maturity curve. Remember that “fine wine” is a relatively recent phenomenon in most regions outside of Rioja and Jerez, and producers are still grappling with the establishment of distinct regional styles, not to mention containing the enthusiasm of discovering that there are markets for their wines beyond regional and national frontiers. In this sense, Spain is where California or Australia was in the early 1990s, when the general over-exuberance resulted in exaggerated styles of overly oaky fruit concoctions. The least interesting wines in the release were those that taste like they could have come from anywhere: simple, jammy fruit, soft texture and an impression of sweetness on the palate – basic supermarket wines. Everybody needs to pay the bills. The best were well made to be sure, but have more individuality and personality, a fundamental difference between commodity wine and an authentic expression of a place.

The pendulum will continue its inexorable oscillation back to the middle, as it already has in many other countries. I am sure that the soul searching already underway in Spain will steer the country toward a place of prominence on store shelves, restaurant lists and in private cellars the world over. While not widely recognized or even represented in Ontario, Spain’s top wines are up there with the best. Ultimately these representative icons need to find their way here in order to cast a spell of quality on the rest of Spain’s offering, just as Chile, Australia and South Africa, among others, are working to get out of the ‘good value ghetto’, or at least build another more chic and exclusive neighborhood around the ghetto to bring up the average real estate prices.

My top ten wines from Spain are listed below for your convenience. The wines that topped the list for me were universally appealing, with neither excess of oak nor exaggeratedly ripe or raisined fruit. Some favour fruity flavours, while others are more traditionally savoury and earthy, but all are representative of the New Spain. As though to hammer the value point home, four Spanish wines can also be found in the top ten smart buys.

Cheers,


John Szabo, MS

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