Top 30 Spanish reds on the high street
Looking at the wines that made it into the top 30, the immediate reaction, depending on your viewpoint, is either to marvel at or despair at the stranglehold Rioja still has on Spanish wines in the UK high street. Half the wines tasted were Rioja (predominantly reservas and crianzas) and 17 of the 30 selected were Rioja (all but one either reserva or crianza). As the overall standard of the wines tasted was high, with 21 rated Highly Recommended (90-94 points), of which 13 were Rioja, the obvious conclusion is that red Rioja is very reliable – in fact, probably one of the most reliable reds in the £10 to £15 price bracket in the UK.
No cause for despair there, surely? Well, no, but it may not look quite as rosy if you’re a wine lover who wants to access more of Spain’s other interesting reds – wines that undoubtedly do exist – or if you’re a producer or importer of good quality, good value wines in one of the many other regions.
Hence the disappointment for some wine drinkers and traders – especially when they look over their shoulders at Italian reds. Pick 30 top Italian high-street reds for under £15, as Andy Howard MW did for Decanter’s Italy supplement (February 2019), and no single region dominates to such a degree.
On the other hand, encouragingly, the 13 wines that weren’t Rioja came from 10 different appellations, stretching from
