Have you heard the one about a German, an Argentinian and a Swiss? It’s not the beginning of a pub joke, but the story of how an obscure region is attracting winemakers from around the world. Usually when tasting wines from a region new to me, I look for a degree of commonality, whether it is a grape variety or flavour profile. At this tasting though, put together by online retailer Wines of Ronda, the list of grape varieties included Viognier, Lemberger, and Zweigelt. Hardly commonplace grapes, and one would be hard-pressed to identify a region planted with these varieties as being Spanish. “The new taste of Spanish wine” was the tagline of the tasting, and very apt it is. Even though Spain is part of the Old World, it has shown tremendous courage in challenging the status quo (hello Ferran Adrià). Imagine tasting a wine made from French grapes planted in Spanish soil by a German winemaker.
