Full-bodied Spanish red wines: 10 top bottles worth seeking out

If you’re a lover of hearty red wines, then Spain will undoubtedly already be on your radar.

With its wealth of native red grapes, such as Tempranillo, and traditional oaked styles like Rioja gran reserva, Spain can deliver reliable quality.

‘The 2001, 2005, 2010, even 2009, and then the 2011 vintage were all showing well,’ noted Sarah Jane Evans MW, DWWA Co-Chair and author of The Wines of Northern Spain, at a recent panel tasting.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 10 full-bodied Spanish red wines to stock up on

Ribera del Duero in northwest Spain is another name that should be on your list.

Again, Tempranillo is the star here, put to good use by top producers such as Vega Sicilia and Dominio de Pingus. ‘All great Ribera wines are the result of careful site(s) selection, mature vines, low yields, smart winemaking and deft ageing,’ notes Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW, DWWA Regional Chair for Spain.

Meanwhile in the northeast of the country, the Catalan DOQ Priorat, with its high-altitude Garnacha and Cariñena vineyards, distinctive licorella slate soils and wealth of old vines, can also produce distinctive, concentrated red wines.

‘Priorat is the world’s strictest appellation in what concerns the legal definition of old vines, or vinyas vellas, a term that is only applied to vines planted before 1945,’ explains Ballesteros Torres.

While many of the wineries in these three regions can command hefty sums for their top wines, there is value to be found elsewhere in Spain, as winemakers are constantly innovating and experimenting with both lesser known native varieties and international grapes.

For example leading producer Torres – which planted one of the first Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards in the whole of Spain in 1966 – has looked beyond its Penedès homeland: rescuing old vineyards in Priorat, as well as championing forgotten native grapes with its Ancestral Varieties project since the 1980s.

These include red grapes Garró and Querol, which are blended with Garnacha, Cariñena and Monastrell to produce Torres Grans Muralles (see below) in Conca de Barberà.

Another red variety that will probably be unfamiliar to most wine lovers is Bobal. Actually Spain’s third-most planted variety with 62,000ha, it was previously used to bulk up blends or to produce rather rustic, tannic single-varietal wines.

Recent improvements in winemaking – particularly in the Bobal heartland of Utiel-Requena, which is home to nearly 40% of the world’s total Bobal plantings – have led to a raft of quality wines appearing in the market. This prompted Decanter‘s first-ever Bobal panel tasting.

‘Bobal is a variety with potential, much still to be realised,’ noted Evans at that tasting. ‘Producers are showing that the “difficult”, “rustic” Bobal can be immensely adaptable, producing long-lasting reds, fresh rosados and sparkling wines.’ The fact that it is still so unknown, means that wine lovers can find tremendous value if they seek out top expressions of aged Bobal.

Bobal is one of the ‘discovery’ wines in this selection of top-scoring full-bodied reds from recent Decanter tastings.

Whether you have thousands of pounds to spend on top names for your cellar or want an affordable mid-week wine to enjoy, Spain will deliver.

Full-bodied Spanish red wines to try

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