The two Burgundies of Spain
Year 15, No. 14
Highlights: Sherry & Jerez 2025
As much as everyone loves to tout some random tourism destination as being the, “Tuscany of ______”, when it comes to wine region comparisons, all roads lead to France. Don't believe me? Let's give it a whirl in terms of Spain.
You see for me, Rioja is the Bordeaux of Spain. It just so happens that there are many historical links between the two, but the fact is that they’re both red dominant regions that (still) adhere to aging in barrel and are very advanced technologically. Additionally, they’re suffering similar fortunes in the current wine market, but I feel that Rioja will eventually pull out of it if for the reason that people will come back around to sun-kissed red wines as they are, bliss in a bottle. Also, there are oodles of new producers making wines in very exciting ways and ignoring the whole “oak thing” as mentioned by Andy Neather in a recent article.
Cava would like it very much is we were to say that it’s the Champagne of Spain, but at best, it’s the catch-all Crémant of Spain. It’s Corpinnat that’s proving to be the Champagne of Spain and not just because they both start with a ‘C’ and are spelled with the same number of letters, but because there’s a direct correlation to the high-quality of wines from Corpinnat that are a southern analog to the Grower Champagnes.
As we continue along, is Rías Baixas the Muscadet of Spain, or is that Rueda? And where is the Limoux? Or for that matter, the Irouléguy? Inquiring minds must know.
Maybe we just stop this list as there’s that center piece on the French banquet table of wine which everyone always wants to be. You know, what is the ‘Burgundy’ of Spain?
My money says that’s it’s Priorat given that it’s a small, terroir-driven region that has successfully implemented the same classification pyramid and it’s full of people making some of the finest red wines in the world. Obviously there are vast differences as they’re working from a Grenache base, not Pinot Noir, although the latter is fully authorized for use in Priorat—yes, wha?
But there’s one issue here in that while the argument for Priorat being Spain’s Burgundy for red wine can be made (and yes, I do hear the grumbling in the galleries) it’s simply not Spain’s Burgundy for white wine as while there’s been 400% growth of whites in the region over the last 15 years, they’re tremendously different wines in approach compared to a Mersault, Montrachet, or Corton-Charlemagne and I don’t they’ll ever be similar.
So, what is Spain’s Burgundy for white wines? I will tell you where I now realize it exists, as it’s 800km from Priorat and it may surprise you to learn, that it’s the region of Jerez/Sherry. You can read all about these wonderful discoveries in the lastest report on the region that includes a tasting of over 110 wines both in the classic style as well as the unfortified, ‘new’ style.
We’re clearly in a season of change as others have been arriving hot and heavy as well, such as 2025 being the first 100% organic harvest in DO Penedès. This is an event that started either three years ago, or 46 depending upon how you look at it, but it’s been a great thing that’s come to pass.
And, as it often seems is the case, there have been a lot of tastings and trips recently. Locally, in addition to rounding up my tastings for the region of Catalunya, I also managed to fit in a visit to the exciting project of Can Sumoi that’s pushing new frontiers while being both in and out of Penedès proper.
Lastly, a big item on my wine region bucket list has finally been checked off with my visit to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands for the 250th anniversary of Bodegas el Grifo. That was an excellent, unforgettable trip to what is the moon of winemaking.
Drink well, be well.
-Miquel
(*) Free to read
The Featured Report
Sherry & Jerez 2025
One of, if not the oldest of Spain’s delimited wine regions, Sherry has seen ups and downs, being in and out of fashion to arrive at the point now where it’s just on the brink of tremendous change with some excellent new kinds of wines to back it up.
And now this
There is a unique place in Morocco where wine vines can thrive and it’s worth having another look at what they’re doing.
Alella in Catalunya may be a bit unknown to most people, but that isn’t stopping Can Matons from making some great white wines.
Also in Alella, the artist formerly known as Alta Alella is releasing wines under their new name of Art Laietà.
Now that's some news!! Hot Arrival Miquel
🤔 Not sure about Jerez. I've lived in both burgundy (1993/4) and Jerez (well, Sanlúcar, 2017/18) and although both have special, possibly unique limestone based soils and a history of parcel identification, for me any similarities end there. That said, when we were in Sanlúcar, there were precious few unfortified Palominos of any quality that we could find and most still suffered from heavy handed, oxidative winemaking. Forlong was about the only exception we came across. Perhaps we didn't look hard enough?
The shame is that Ribeiro was never able to evolve properly having become dominated by cave coopératives. It was one of Spain's first 3 DOs (along with Jerez and Rioja) so it must have been highly thought of a century ago. In terms of climate, parcel differentiation and wine styles, I see more parallels between Ribeiro and Burgundy but the potential of Ribeiro has barely been developed.