Wines Of The New Spain

It is time to look beyond Rioja and Ribera del Duero to new styles of reds, such as those coming from Ribeira Sacra and the Canary Islands.

- NIMMI MALHOTRA

"It is a beautiful moment in Spain because winemakers are interpreting wines by the place and not by the fashion of the time," Roberto Santana says.

Santana is one of the four founders of Envínate (translates as "wine yourself"), a producer that focusses on distinctive parcels mainly in Spain's Atlantic-influenced regions.

The former university mates are part of a new wave of winemakers focused on reviving and expressing terruños (terroir). They are unearthing native Spanish grapes, rediscovering old vineyards, and introducing a less-is-more winemaking approach with a goal of authentically expressing each parcel's terroir. New oak, synonymous with Spanish reds from more traditionally acclaimed regions like Rioja and Ribera del Duero, is largely eschewed or dialled down to its neutral form.

The result is a slew of alluring wines-light, clean and taut, expressing purity of fruit, minerality and freshness.

Call it the Spanish wine renaissance or the wines of New Spain, these styles are galvanising the Spanish wine industry and garnering new fans across the globe.

Two regions, in particular, have been gaining traction: the vertiginous Ribiera Sacra, where Envínate crafts mencia-based wines of integrity, elegance, and finesse. And the Canary Islands, especially the island of Tenerife, where Envínate and self-taught winemaker Jonatan García Lima are producing mineral-driven wines from native grapes grown on treasured, ungrafted vines.

THE PRECIPITOUS VINEYARDS OF RIBEIRA SACRA

The picturesque region of Ribeira Sacra sits in Galicia, bound by the Atlantic Sea in Northeast Spain. The rivers Sil and Miño traverse the land of valleys and canyons where the vineyards are planted on steep, terraced, and treacherous slopes. The soils are stony, the weather cool, and mechanisation near-impossible.