¡Arriba! Spanish wine books to uplift and enhance your experience of this great wine country.

Spain has roughly 945,000 hectares of vineyard – the most land under vine in the world. It’s also the third largest country in Europe, and is hugely diverse in terms of regional and cultural differences from north to south, east to west - not forgetting the islands too, where wine is becoming increasingly important. Tenerife, Lanzarote, and Mallorca are rising as the favourites of local and international winemakers, who prize their volcanic soils and indigenous grape varieties.

With over 3,000 years of history, there is much to enjoy and celebrate when it comes to Spanish wine. There is both tradition in regions like Priorat, Ribera del Duero and Rioja, where wine stays true to its often more recognisable roots, and a continual evolution of style driven by new-wave winemakers.

Even in these more traditional regions – in 2025 Rioja celebrated 100 years since it was formally recognised as a DOCa (Denominación de Origen Calificada – the first in Spain) - more modern styles blend in. While the vineyards have evidence of winemaking that dates back to Roman times, they sit alongside some of Europe’s most impressive and modern winery buildings. Frank Gehry’s modernist masterpiece at Marqués de Riscal is one; the dramatic jagged roof of Bodega Ysios, echoing the peaks of the sierra behind it, another.

In the north of the country, where cool climate Galicia attracts pilgrims of wine as much as those walking the famous Camino de Santiago, varieties like Albariño create fresh, floral wines (many of which are capable of long ageing); Godello and Treixadura thrive here alongside reds like Mencia and Monastrell. In the Basque country, the theatrical side of Spain still flourishes in the way Txakolina is poured, imbuing the Spanish wine scene with a distinct personality.

In Sierra de Gredos, one of Spain’s current most exciting wine regions, younger winemakers are making names for themselves by growing vines on more difficult to manage soils, and with less interventional approaches. Sparkling wine is also moving forwards, with the new collective trademark such as Corpinatt - the namederived from Cor (heart) and Pinnat (from Penedès), designed for ageworthy organic, and biodynamic wines made from indigenous grapes. This new labelling system breaks away from the broader DO Cava appellation, which allows traditional-method sparkling wine to be made across much of Spain, by introducing stricter, terroir-driven standards.

Further south in Jerez, even the most traditional of Spanish winemakers are innovating. They continue to push the boundaries of style, many now using flor (the film of yeast which grows on the surface of sherry in the barrel and which imparts its distinctive nutty flavours) to make unfortified wines from Palomino - a grape otherwise often maligned outside of making ‘standard sherry’. This has become exemplary, and the style can now be seen across the world - as far away as the Mornington Peninsula in Australia.