Cillar de Silos Crianza, Ribera del Duero, Spain 2016 (£23, bbr.com) Rioja is the big name in Spanish wine, no question. Bottles from the northern region account for around half of all the money the British spend on Spanish wine each year, and its traditional stylistic template of oaky mellowness still shapes what many of us expect from the country’s red wines. The most coveted Spanish wine bodega of all, however, is not in Rioja. That credit belongs – as it has done for around 150 years – to Vega Sicilia, a single estate in Ribera del Duero to the west of Rioja, whose trio of superb ageworthy reds, but particularly Unico and Reserva Especial, attract top-Bordeaux (three and four-figure) prices. Until recently, the fame of Vega Sicilia dwarfed that of the region itself; but over the past 30 years, Ribera has emerged as a real challenger to the Rioja hegemony, thanks to wines ofdepth and silky polish, such as Cilar de Silos’ immaculate crianza.
Bodega de Bardos Romantica Crianza, Ribera del Duero, Spain 2016 (from £13.50, nickollsandperks.co.uk; cambridgewine.com; henningswine.co.uk; woodwinters.com) What makes comparisons between Ribera del Duero and Rioja irresistible is that both regions are dominated by the same grape variety: tempranillo, (or tinto fino or tinta del país as the Ribera del Duero variant is known). The big difference is that the vineyards in the upper valley of the Duero River (which flows down to Portugal where it changes its name to Douro, and supports another great wine region near Porto) are at a much higher altitude (around 800m above sea level) than in Rioja (which tops out around 500m). What that tends to mean in practice is a short growing season where the very hot days are matched by very cool nights, leading to wines that tend to be more intense in colour, dark fruit (mulberry and blackberry) flavour and tannin, but with a balancing, focusing freshness, all qualities very much in evidence in Bardos’ Romantica.
Quinta Milu Roble, Ribera del Duero, Spain 2018 (from £12.99, randhfinewines.co.uk; noblegreenwines.co.uk; connollyswine.co.uk; corksofbristol.com) Perhaps because its emergence as a wine region – Vega Siclia aside – coincided with boom years for the Spanish and global economy, Ribera del Duero’s reputation has sometimes been one of excess. Tasting a selection of the region’s wines in the 1990s and 2000s could be hard work: too many producers were pushing the limits, harvesting fruit as late as possible, and making big, syrupy red wines with high alcohol, over-ripe fruit and absurd quantities of toasty oak that were impressive for the first sip or two, but lacking in freshness and tiring to drink, as well as being dramatically overpriced. In recent years, however, there has been a move by producers to make wines of greater clarity and vim, wines that are more suited to drinking with food, such as Quinta Milu’s exuberant, succulent, bright berried beauty.
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