As detailed in another article in this edition, Spanish winemakers use a lot of grapes that are unfamiliar to most North American wine lovers. Perhaps most people don’t care but the readers of Power Tasting are a demanding bunch. They don’t just want to enjoy what they’re sipping but also know about it. In California, wherever they go, they know they’ll find Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Zinfandel in the reds, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc in the whites.
Tasting wine at tapas bars in Barcelona.
Not so in Spain. A lot of it is geographical. In the north, there will be Tempranillo; in the southwest, near Jerez, there will be Palomino and Pedro Ximénez in the sherry. Macabeo in Pinedes, Mencia in the Priorat and in Galicia Albariño grapes go into the wine of the same name. It would take a lot of travel to experience them all at the vineyards.
That’s where wine bars come in. The fact that the bars also double as taparias doesn’t hurt. Here are a few tips for diving into the various grapes that are used in Spanish winemaking.
- One option is pot luck. There’s nothing stopping you from sitting down with a tapa and asking for a glass of tinto or a blanco. Then ask the server what wine was served. Crude but effective, if you go to enough tapas bars you’re likely to get a selection. But it will also likely be a selection of mediocre wines.
- Skip the sangria. A pitcher of fruit juice, red wine and fruit is (may be?) fine for a picnic. If you’re interested in learning about Spanish wines, you won’t learn anything with sangria.
- A better plan is to go to the slightly better tapas bars (for the most part, you can tell the better ones just by looking at them) and order wine by region. Even better, order several glasses from different regions and compare them. In that manner we found that we prefer wines from the Ribero del Duero to those from Rioja. Maybe that’s because Riberos are often blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Riojas with Spanish grapes. In the whites, we found we prefer Albariños to the Macabeos of Rioja.
- Rely on sommeliers. While this is good advice anywhere, having someone guide you through the mysteries of a Spanish wine list is very helpful. A better restaurant will offer wines from smaller producers of higher quality that are probably unknown to foreign visitors. Always with consideration for the food order, you can ask a sommelier or a server to suggest a wine specifically from regions other than the best known ones and from less well known grapes as well. That’s how, in the past, we discovered Priorat wines and Verdejo from Castille.
- Try as many as you can, then decide. It is easy to fall back on Tempranillo as a favorite because these are the most widely available wines back home. But if you’re in Spain, experiment. You may never get to taste wines from some grapes again. And if you find one you do like, you can search for it in wine stores around where you live. You may get lucky.