Spanish wine, especially the more expensive types, are often called crianza, reserva, or gran reserva on the front of the bottle. The terms are often placed on the label where the type of grape could be expected to be, which has led many people to assume that these terms are a type of grape. In fact, these terms tell you how the wine has been aged, specifically the amount of time the wine has aged in oak barrels, and they generally refer to the quality, not the style of the wine.
What Spanish wine terms mean
Instead, the three Spanish wine terms refer to the time the wine has been aged.
- Aging: A wine labeled as aging has spent a year in oak barrels.
- Reserve: a wine that says reserve on the bottle has been aged for two years; One of these years has passed in oak.
- Gran Reserva : These wines are aged for two years in oak and three years in the bottle.
Other common wine bottle labels in Spain
Additionally, you may see or hear the following terms related to wine in Spain:
- Young: A wine that has not been aged will be called young (young), but you will not see it on the bottle. A young red wine from La Rioja is called cosechero .
- Barrel Aged: Some cheaper wines may have Barrel Aged (barrel aged) on the label. If it does not also have crianza, reserva or gran reserva written on the label, it means that the wine has not met the criteria for these. It probably means that the wine is between a young and a crianza.
- Denomination of origin: many wine regions in Spain are registered as appellation of origin , which means that they are protected by European laws. This is different from the wine of the earth (below).
- Vino de Mesa: Spanish for table wine, this is not the American sense of ‘not sparkling or fortified’. Instead, it is the lowest quality of the wine, with no geographic origin allowed on the bottle, perhaps because the wine is from a mix of regions, or because it has been exempted from being called appellation of origin wine for some other reason.
- Vino de la Tierra: Some wine regions have not or cannot apply for appellation of origin status, but want to protect the quality of their region’s wine in a different way. These wines can be known as wine from the land . The authority that protects these wines may be stricter than an appellation of origin; The land wine authorities are controlled by an external body, while the appellation of origin tends to be autonomous.
Types of Spanish wine
The most famous Spanish red wine comes from the regions of La Rioja and Ribera del Duero. La Rioja is located in the north of Spain, south of the Basque Country, just below the Cantabrian Mountains, where the vineyards form the Ebro Valley. The commonly used grape for Rioja is Tempranillo , a grape native to Spain. The name is derived from the Spanish word early , which means “early”, as the grape ripens earlier than most grapes. Other grapes used for Rioja include Garnacha Tinta, Graciano and Mazuelo.
There is also the Ribera del Duero wine, which uses Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo grapes. The most expensive wine in Spain, made by the notable Vega Sicilia winery, comes from the Ribera del Duero region.
Although red wine is the most popular in Spain, there are also some Spanish white wines available. For example, the white Rioja from Viura is a good option, along with the Ruedas, the white Riojas, the sherry, the cava, the Basque and Galician whites. The most famous white wine in Spain is Rueda, which is grown in the wine region of Castilla y León, in the cities of Valladolid, Segovia and Ávila. The word, wheel , is Spanish for the word “wheel.” The main grape used for a Rueda is Verdejo. It is often mixed with Sauvignon blanc grapes.
