Spain
Continental to Mediterranean
Home to the largest vineyard area in the world, a land of old bush vines, oak-aged Tempranillo and fast-modernising fine wine.
Overview
About Spain
Spain has more land under vine than any other country, though yields are low and much of its production comes from old, dry-farmed vines. The country's classification, the Denominación de Origen system, dates from the 1930s; the top level, DOCa, was first awarded to Rioja in 1991.
Spanish reds are often named by ageing: Joven (young), Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva, each with minimum times in oak and bottle. Beyond table wine, Spain is the home of Sherry, Cava and Rías Baixas Albariño.
Where is a grape grown?
Hover a marker to see what's grown there, and click it to open that place. On a touch screen, tap once to preview and again to open. Bigger markers have more grapes linked to them.
Spain
The land
Climate & terroir
Climate
Continental to Mediterranean
Much of the interior is a high plateau, the meseta, with hot summers, cold winters and big day-night swings. The north-west is cool and Atlantic; the east and south are Mediterranean.
Terroir & soils
What the vines grow in
Limestone, clay and slate, with many vineyards planted at altitude — often 400 to 1,000 metres on the meseta — to offset the heat.
Go deeper
How the wines are classified
Spanish wine is ranked by place, and its red-wine labels are ranked again by how long the wine has been aged.
DOCa
Denominación de Origen Calificada, the top tier, with strict controls. Only Rioja and Priorat hold it.
DO
Denominación de Origen, the main quality tier, with dozens of appellations.
Vino de Pago
A single estate with its own designation.
Vino de la Tierra
A broader regional designation with looser rules.
Within Spain
Regions
Bierzo
A cool, green valley in north-west Spain where old-vine Mencía has been reframed, over the last two decades, as one of the country's most exciting reds.
Jerez
The sun-baked, chalky-soiled home of Sherry, Spain's great fortified wine, aged under a living layer of flor yeast or oxidatively for decades.
Penedès
Catalonia's leading wine region, south-west of Barcelona: the historic home of Cava, and increasingly serious still wine from local and international grapes.
Priorat
A remote, mountainous corner of Catalonia where old Garnacha and Cariñena vines root into black slate, making some of Spain's most concentrated, mineral reds.
Rías Baixas
Galicia's Atlantic coast, cool and wet, where Albariño grows on granite and is trained overhead on pergolas.
Ribeiro
Galicia's oldest wine denomination, in the inland river valleys of Ourense, where Treixadura is the leading white grape.
Ribera del Duero
A high plateau along the Duero river, where Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) makes powerful, dark, structured reds.
Rioja
Spain's most famous quality-wine region, on the upper Ebro, defined by oak-aged Tempranillo blends classified from Crianza to Gran Reserva.
Rueda
A high, dry plateau in Castilla y León that rescued the Verdejo grape from near-extinction and turned it into one of Spain's most popular dry whites.
Toro
A hot, dry stretch of the Duero valley making some of Spain's darkest, most powerful reds from Tinta de Toro, a local strain of Tempranillo.
What's grown here
Grapes
Grapes linked to Spain or to a place within it. Each grape's page links back here.