Spanish wines offer great value
Why you should buy Spanish wines now!
Spanish wines offer the biggest bang for the buck
There are an amazing number of excellent value Spanish wines available at local wine shops and fine supermarkets. Check any of the top wine writers and wine critics and there are always a few Spanish wines on their lists, highly rated at bargain prices. The dollar is currently in our favor, plus the cost of doing wine business in Spain is much less than here.
Varieties
The main grape of Spain is Tempranillo. It is king in the Rioja, Ribera del Duero, and Toro wine regions. Other reds include Garnacha, Carignane, Monastrell, and Mencia. In white wines, Albariño, Verdejo, and Viura are the best known. Albariño has become the most popular white wine from Spain. If you like sparkling wines, there are no better offerings than the wines of the Penedes region of Spain, better known as Cava. Besides varieties of grapes, there are many different wine regions growing many of these grapes. Each region produces a different style of wine. For example, a Garnacha from the Priorat is much bolder that a Garnacha produced from Campo de Borja.
Spanish wines are aged
The wines that are labeled Crianza, Reserva, and Gran Reserva have been aged in the barrel and bottle before being released. It’s hard to believe you can get a $15 bottle of Tempranillo that has been aged four years before being released for sale. For example, the current Kirkland Rioja Reserva vintage is 2010. It is delicious and priced at $7.
Because Matt Kramer says so
Wine writer Matt Kramer recently posted in the Wine Spectator an article about the wine bargains offered in wines from Spain and Portugal. “For all of Europe’s seemingly bottomless resources for fine wine, I defy you to point to any area, including even Italy or France, that offers wine lovers a richer array of new wine accomplishments than Spain and Portugal. Just as an experiment, I went to a good retail shop in San Francisco last week and scooped up a half-dozen different Mencía wines from the Bierzo and Ribeira Sacra districts in northwest Spain. My only criterion was price, with a cutoff of $25 (several were just $15). I knew none of the producers and cared nothing about vintage. Every bottle I tried was lovely; there wasn’t a clinker in the bunch.”
Spanish wines we like – Under $20
Reds
Whites
Where to buy Spanish wines
Any good wine shop will have a very nice selection of Spanish wines. BevMo stores seemed to be well stocked with Spanish wines. Costco always seems to have a few different reds and always at least one Albariño. In the San Francisco Bay Area the Spanish Table stores in San Francisco, Berkeley and Mill Valley have the best selection of Spanish wines.
Quality Spanish wines are plentiful if you look. Eric Solomon is a great source for wines. Black Slate is world class and a deal price wise. David Phinney and his series of wines: E=Espana, I= Italy and F=France are stunning in quality and all priced under $20. Great post on the wines of Spain.
Great post on super value wines from Spain. David Phinney has his line of great value wines under $20. Look for E= Espana, I=Italy and F=France.. There are still great wines if you are willing to look beyond California. Enjoy🍷🍷
Vino Zaco, Tres Picos, LAN, Black Slate, and the Kirkland Rioja are regulars at my house. I also think you accidentally left out the various monastrells , like the Tarima Hill. The other thing I’ve noticed about these, is that vintage variations are for the most part, nonexistent.
Something off the beaten Spanish path that I tried tonight: Viños de Arganza Viño de la Tierra de Castilla y León Lagar de Robla 2012 from Oddlots in Berkeley. I think it was $12, maybe $11? Mencia variety from Galicia in the NW of Spain (Bierzo), an area perhaps better know for its whites made from Godello.
If this were a better known grape and region it would go for twice the price at least. Mineraly and smokey red.