Top 100 Spanish Wines of 2017
Our Top 100 Spanish Wines of 2017 is the most diverse, wide-ranging list on wines from the country we’ve ever put together. It covers everything from floral, finely structured bobal grown in La Manchuela to toffee-flavored, unctuous PXs aged up to 80-odd years in barrel.
Like our other country-specific top 100 lists, price is not a factor in determining our list of Spanish wines this year. However, you might be surprised that many of the bottles below sell for under USD $50, or even USD $20. It certainly was no easy task making our definitive selection based purely on quality from the nearly 1,200 wines we tasted during our tasting trip to Spain last June.
Nevertheless, there was no difficulty in deciding our Spanish Wine of the Year 2017. Vega Sicilia’s Unico is still Spain’s most iconic wine in every respect – pedigree, longevity and consistency – and the 2006 is a landmark vintage. The wine’s fine, soft-grained package with seemingly endless layers of complexity and elegance encapsulates what modern Spanish wine is all about. And it’s not merely the product of a hot, arid summer that cooled down just in time towards the end. It’s living proof that for many, the days of over-extraction and over-ripeness are well and truly gone. We couldn’t be happier.
Elegant and complex, Vega Sicilia Ribera del Duero Unico 2006 is our Spanish Wine of the Year 2017,
Vega Sicilia is also placed 13th with its Reserva Especial, which is a blend of various vintages of Unico — in this case, 2004, 2005 and 2006. This wine is slightly more fruit-forward but equally as enticing with depth that’s hard to fathom. The special edition and the vintage bottling are both traditionally aged for at least 10 years. However, recently speaking, years such as 2007 and 2008 have been released earlier.
Many of the stars on our top 100 list this year are longtime bastions of great Spanish wine, and perhaps, nowhere more so than in Rioja. Consider the Muga Rioja Prado Enea Gran Reserva 2010, our No. 2 Spanish wine in 2017. Muga has been making wine in Haro, Rioja Alta, since 1932, and its Prado Enea has always been one of our go-to Spanish wines. Not only is the 2010 almost unimaginably drinkable with a filigree texture but it retails for just over USD $50.
Indeed, three of our top 10 wines are made a literal stone’s throw away from each other in Haro: CUNE Rioja Real de Asua 2001 (No. 6), La Rioja Alta Rioja Gran Reserva 890 2005 (No. 7) and López de Heredia Rioja Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia 1996 (No. 8). Of course, aging is brought into play; hence, the beautiful integration between tannins and acidity in these wines is attributed to a masterful use of oak aging. And yes, they’re traditional producers but they also embody an era of new classicism in La Rioja.
A handful of our top 10 Spanish wines are made a literal stone’s throw away from each other in Haro, Rioja Alta.
Joining some of these hallowed names are much newer operations such as Dominik Hubre’s Terroir Al Limit, which landed our Spanish Wine of the Year 2016. In fact, the Terroir al Limit Priorat Les Tosses 2015 (No. 9, 98 points) is even better than the commended 2014 vintage, pushing the boundaries yet further for cariñena. However, it’s hard to choose between these Burgundian, terroir-explosive wines from Priorat. The full-treatment white Terroir al Limit Priorat Pedra de Guix 2015 came in at No. 19, while the pure garnacha Terroir al Limit Priorat Les Manyes 2015 secured the No. 33 position.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Alvaro Palacios is the most omnipresent figure on this list. Naturally, the phenomenal wines he makes in Priorat and Rioja (Alvaro Palacios Priorat L’Ermita 2015, No. 16; Alvaro Palacios Priorat Dofi 2015, No. 18), and continued capacity as the standard-bearer for mencia – together with his nephew Ricardo – all contribute to his success. The Descendientes de J. Palacios Bierzo La Faraona 2015 (No. 5, 99 points), which is made on slate soils pivoted on unnervingly steep slopes that reach over 800m in altitude, could barely set the bar any higher. Additionally, the Descendientes de J. Palacios Bierzo Moncerbal 2015 is not far behind as well (No. 13, 98 points).
From left to right: Jack Suckling (Tasting Editor) Alvaro Palacios (whose family owns the prestigious Rioja Bodega) and James Suckling (CEO/Editor).
Yet mencia is by no means a one-man show. The likes of Losada Vinos de Finca Mencía Bierzo Altos de Losada La Bienquerida 2015 (No. 23, 96 points), Losada Vinos de Finca Mencía Bierzo 2015 (No. 37, 95 points) or Bodegas y Viñedos Merayo Mencía Bierzo Las Tres Filas 2015 (No. 74, 94 points) are almost unrecognizable to old-style, light, fruity mencia. These are wines that capitalize on the variety’s unique, dark-fruited aromatic offerings, while also redefining the structure you might have expected as recently as two decades ago. Poor, slate soils, old vines and modernized production facilities seem to be the key here.
There are so many different wines made in a myriad of styles and from an enormous number of varying grapes and regions in our Top 100 Spanish Wines of 2017. They all combine elements of new and old, tradition and modernity, technology and savoir faire. It is precisely how these producers untapped the potential, making the vibrant, ethereal and profound wines that we very much enjoyed tasting in 2017. We can’t wait to try more of these fine wines on our next visit this June! — Jack Suckling, Tasting Editor