Wines of the Year 2025: Spain & Portugal

Rioja

This was the year to fall in love with Rioja all over again. The DOCa marked its 100th anniversary – a momentous celebration that served as a reminder, on the one hand, of the region’s long winemaking tradition (going much further back than these 100 years) and, on the other, of its capacity to evolve and remain not merely relevant but firmly at the forefront of contemporary wine.

Serendipitously coinciding with the centenary, the inaugural Decanter Rioja report (in the May issue’s annual Rioja supplement) allowed us to experience, first hand and in great depth, the vibrancy, diversity and sheer quality of the region’s output.

Our extensive tasting exceeded our best expectations. Among the top scorers were established icons but also ‘young guns’; in tandem, these are expanding the region’s already impressive canon, across colours and styles, well beyond the obvious and expected.

The rise of Rioja’s whites is particularly of note, with all-time classics – not least CVNE’s inimitable Monopole Clásico Gran Reserva – rubbing shoulders with modern jewels such as El Pacto’s Jesús Acha.

There was of course no shortage of gems on the red front; we were blown away by the transparency and nuance of Carlos Sánchez’s La Bendecida and Miguel Merino’s La Quinta Cruz (which also makes the strongest of cases for the potential of the Mazuelo variety).

Rioja also shone closer to home, at Decanter’s tasting suite in London. We hosted producer Remírez de Ganuza at one of our ‘Decanter Presents…’ events, and bodeguero José Urtasun brought an outstanding lineup that included UV, a truly fresh (all puns intended) take on the Tempranillo variety.

We’re already looking forward to our 2026 report! And here’s to 100 years more.

Portugal & Spain (beyond Rioja)

How hard – and painfully unfair – to select only five wines for this broad section. And in a year that has delivered a memorable array of standout bottles from across the Iberian peninsula, where producers big and small are leveraging today’s many challenges to refine and assert their sense of identity.

The tough trading times have validated the efforts of those who eschew trends and remain true to themselves, reinventing tradition without losing sight of it – elements fundamental to producing wines at once timeless and excitingly modern.

The latter could definitely be said of Kopke’s 80 Year Old Tawny Port and Alves de Sousa’s Memórias; both pay tribute, in different but equally compelling ways, to the heritage of the Douro.

Tradition reinvented and classic modernity were also running themes across our inaugural Ribera del Duero report (see October 2025 issue). Among the top-scoring wines was Francisco Barona’s Finca Las Dueñas – a Reserva like no other, of robust, nuanced elegance, as charismatic as Barona himself.

Much further south, in Jerez, a new generation of equally talented vignerons is producing some of Spain’s most exciting bottles: Vinos de Pasto are the unfortified wines being produced from the same grape (Palomino Fino) and terroirs as Sherry.

I was blown away by Raúl Moreno’s (pictured above) perfect encapsulations of technical precision and maverick questioning of stylistic assumptions. Meanwhile, Juvé & Camps brought Spain’s sparkling excellence to our tasting suite for our first ‘Decanter Presents…’ event (in late October at our London W2 offices).

And the producer didn’t disappoint: during the session we tasted the standout Cava La Capella – produced exclusively from Xarel.lo, it was another affirmation of Spain’s indigenous varieties.

The best wines are, more than drinks, unforgettable experiences; these five, and many others, will linger long in my memory.

Wines of the year 2025: Spain & Portugal

Wines from Rioja are listed first then the rest of the peninsula

Related content

Rioja Report 2025: Notes on a tasting a century in the making

Ribera del Duero Report 2025: The wines redefining this premium Spanish region

Collector’s Guide: Spain