UNDOUBTEDLY AND unsurprisingly, the first name that comes to most people’s minds when thinking about wines from Spain is Rioja -and a red Rioja at that. Sadly, with only a couple of exceptions, the white wines of Spain are largely undiscovered and so under-appreciated.
Currently, apart from sparkling Cava from the Catalan region of north-eastern Spain and the increasingly popular Albarinho, from the Galician region of Rías Baixas in the north-west of the country, few average wine drinkers could name many, if any, other Spanish white wines.
Taking those two favourites first, , made from a blend of three native grapes – , and –is the traditional sparkling wine of Spain. Until the Seventies it was rather confusingly called but then it considerately changed this to avoid legal challenges from France’s protected Champagne classification.
