Tolchards Wine Brochure 2023 - Magazine - Page 222
222
SPAIN
A WINEMAKING HOTBED
There’s so much more to Spanish wine than Rioja,
but it’s a great place to start. Spain’s most famous red
wines offer an amazing variety of styles to suit any taste.
There’s a strict hierarchy involving the amount of time
the wines spend maturing in oak or the bottle before
release, from fresh, easy-drinking Joven with no oak
ageing to Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva which
have spent specific periods of maturation both in
oak barrels and in the bottle.
Rioja also has brilliant food-friendly white wines
made mostly with the Viura grape. Beyond Rioja
there is citrussy Albariño, peachy Verdejo and Earthy,
powerful Garnacha from Priorat and muscular,
spicey Tempranillo based Ribera del Duero.
