ARTICLE

Spain is the most dynamic wine-producing country in the world.

Anywhere you look, from Galicia in the northwest to Catalonia in the northeast, Andalusia in the south to Rioja in the north, Spain is full of energetic winemakers drawing inspiration from the country’s traditions and pushing into the future with fresh approaches.

I don’t single out Spain to demean other countries. Even as the wine world feels besieged by falling sales, health concerns and the climate crisis, it is experiencing a global surge of creativity. Great wine is being made the world over. So why single out Spain?

Nowhere else do I see such a concentration of thoughtful, talented and inventive winemakers from all parts of a country offering such a profusion of exceptional wines that are both true to tradition yet innovative.

Here are 10 wonderful bottles from around Spain that represent its increasingly common high level of quality and pure pleasure.

Spain’s rejuvenation has been going on for a while now. I’ve chronicled it over the last 15 years, writing from Ribeira Sacra, Basque Country, Rías Baixas, Manchuela, the Penedès, Sierra de Gredos and Sherry Country, just to name a few. Other regions, too, deserve a more concentrated examination.

It’s a long way from the 1980s and ’90s, when the vanguard in Spain was trying to move ahead by planting international grapes and making oaky, powerful wines. It takes a great deal of confidence for a country entering the global market to embrace its own traditions, which might have been accepted locally but not internationally. Many others have gone through similar phases of emulating established, successful regions before they gain the assurance to look inward.