An international jury convened to decide the winners over three days of tastings, dedicated to Spain, from 11-13 December 2024.
The excitement mounted perceptibly when the doors to Meininger Verlag’s spacious tasting room in Neustadt on the German Wine Route opened on the first day and members of the jury settled at the tasting tables. This was no surprise given that this major tasting comprised a total of 450 wines from 17 categories, under the leadership of experts on Spanish wines Christoph Nicklas and David Schwarzwälder.
On the first two days of tastings, the enthusiastic and focused jury tasted all the wines blind, as a result of which the panel of experts would weed out the 100 best wines receiving the highest marks. On the final day of tasting it was the turn of the master jury, composed of many renowned international experts, including some of the world’s most recognized tasters, such as Sarah Jane Evans MW, Doug Frost MW MS, Almudena Alberca MW, Pedro Ballesteros MW and Spanish expert Beth Willard, who thoroughly examined the wines in these categories again. Every single one of these top growths was described in detail, so that the winners in each of the prize categories could be crowned in order to sport the “Grand Gold – Wines from Spain Awards Champion“ medal. Those wines that made it to the final day can proudly display the “Gold-Wines from Spain Award Top 100 Winner“ medal.
The finalists’ standard was impressively high across the board, but closer attention should be paid here to the 17 Grand Gold wines, which the tasters and, of course, the master jury, particularly loved. The first major surprise was delivered by the winner of the Super Premium wines category with La Cendra, a small and, as yet, virtually unknown project in the highlands of the province of Ávila, in Castile and Léon. The 2020 Garnacha Tinta, also named La Cendra, vinified by celebrity oenologist José Hidalgo for Vinícola de Castilla, won over the jury with its extremely refined, perfumed, elegant character.
A powerful contrast was provided by the best-rated wine in the Premium Red wines category, Altamimbre 2020. The Tempranillo flagship wine from Bodegas Carramimbre originates from an ancient plot in the west of the Ribera del Duero and won because of its depth and concentration.
Although this appellation is actually synonymous with great red wines, another wine from the banks of the Duero also came out on top, in the Premium Rosé category. For years, the Salgüero label has been known for its juiciness and power and proves that a rosado wine can also achieve grandiose complexity through long, careful maturation in barrique. The advance of top Spanish rosés does not stop there.
Another rosado from Castile and Léon, exhibiting remarkable assuredness and finesse, secured a Grand Gold medal in the wines over €7.50 category. The Khur 2023 from Bodegas Gordonzello, in the DO Léon, celebrates the originality of two rare grape varieties (Prieto Picudo and Albarín) and therefore the potential of Spain’s trove of indigenous grape varieties. And to complete the trio, Bodegas Pirineos from Somontano in Aragon attained a Grand Gold in the €3-7.50 EXW, with its skillful, internationally influenced 2023 3404 Rosado. In this vintage from the foot of the Pyrenees, superstars Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo blend into an extremely intensive fruit experience on the nose.
Staying with Tempranillo, Orube Selección de Familia is the top red representing Spain’s leading appellation, Rioja, in the list of winning Grand Gold crus, with its Grand Gold in the under €10 category. The balance and radiant fruit of the Tempranillo from the Basque region of Rioja Alavesa, with its premium chalky terroir, give this 2020 vintage its superb structure.
Garnacha Tinta is once again enjoying high regard and is on a par with Tempranillo, which is native to the north-eastern Spanish region of Aragon. In Coto de Hayas Garnacha Centenaria 2023, the second Grand Gold wine, Bodegas Aragonesas has defended this variety, earning well-deserved recognition for its precise, multilayered interpretation of a Garnacha vinified using grapes from ancient vines from the small but perfectly formed Campo de Borja appellation.
Spain is the most interesting wine country in Europe.
As impressive as the result in terms of Gold and Grand Gold awards was for great rosado and red wines, the outstanding success achieved by Spanish white wines with the Wines from Spain Awards tasters was equally astonishing. The Premium White wines category earned three Grand Golds and at the same time sent a message: Spain’s top white wines are world class!
True aficionados of Spanish white wines might not be surprised that these included two Riojas, given that the renaissance in mature blancos from the Ebro has attracted global attention in recent years. The producer Rioja Vega from the south-eastern Rioja Oriental area has succeeded in elevating the still underestimated white Tempranillo to previously undreamed-of levels of quality, combining fruit and wood into a concentrated masterpiece in its white 2021 Reserva.
The 2018 Las Planas from Viñedos de Alfaro, a single vineyard growth, which must count as one of southern Europe’s best white wines for its dense creaminess and impressive length, was also awarded Grand Gold.
The 2019 Heritage Edition from the Paco & Lola range was no less impressive. Displaying the same style as the new generation of aged top Albariños, this minerally top cru from Rías Baixas, matured in 500-liter barrels, once again proved the enormous potential of the southwest Galician estuary’s maritime terroir. The producer Paco & Lola also delivered a double whammy by securing a second Grand Gold in the Premium Sparkling wine category. The slender, delicate Lola Espumoso, a sparkling wine with 24 months on the lees, should absolutely be seen as pointing the way towards the future, because the success story for very high quality Albariño-based espumosos is only just beginning.
Another protagonist in the Spanish white wine revolution is the historic growing area of Rueda, on the Castilian plateau, so it should have been reasonable to expect at least one Grand Gold Verdejo. What this great Verdejo sobre Lías 2023 by De Alberto in the over €3 category showed, on the other hand, was not just a flawless Verdejo style, with fantastic herbal richness, delineated with wonderful assurance, but an almost unbeatable balance of value for money.
A completely different story embarked on by the tasters was the wines of Andalucia. It has long been known that great sherries are world class, as supremely demonstrated by the Palo Cortado Obispo Gascón from Bodegas Barbadillo. The Grand Gold in the fortified wines category for this highly complex Grandseigneur sherry, with heart and incredible persistence, is very well deserved and is representative of the special position that Jerez holds on the list of great wine-producing destinations of the world.
What has happened in the meantime can confidently be deemed another huge surprise. The talk is of three Grand Golds that went deservedly to unfortified Andalucian wines. One of these would be the Toto Barbadillo sparkling wine, from the bodega of the same name, produced from grapes from the best Albariza terroirs in Jerez Superior, whose creamy, spicy style represents a genuine exception in the sparkling wines under €9.99 category, and means the second Grand Gold for the legendary sherry and manzanilla house in Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
For the second exceptional unfortified Andalucian Grand Gold, we come to the special prizes category - in this case the Best Discovery wine, for El Lechinar 2023 from the DO Montilla-Moriles. Amphorae were used for fermentation and maturation under flor. The result is as exotic as it is special, and also extremely complex. The project by the six-person team of producers, which calls itself Los Insensatos, could not be trendier.
The Andalucian story closes with the Grand Gold special prize for the Best Organic wine. Bodegas Robles, which has for many years been one of the most innovative producers in Montilla-Moriles, made it easy for the tasters to award a Grand Gold. The Fino Piedra Luenga, with two years of solera ageing, is produced from a fully planted Pedro Ximénez vineyard, with highly active yeast cultures that result in an unusually smooth, nuanced fino style, with absolutely no fortification.
Last, but not least, we must pay homage to the Best Wine of Competition. The fairly new Piedra Fluida winery actually cultivates the Listán Blanco grapes for its Los Frontones Blanco 2021 at an altitude of 1,687 meters and has managed to integrate everything associated with Tenerife into this wine – fresh, delicate fruit, classic mineral saltiness and elegance. Atlantic chill meets alpine winemaking in superb harmony!
It's the uniqueness of the terroir in Spain that is truly exciting.
These 17 champions will be presented internationally for the first time, together with the 100 Gold winners, at ICEX‘s stand at ProWein 2025, where on Monday 17 March prizes will be awarded to the winning wineries at 10.30, followed by a commentated tasting of a selection of Grand Gold vintages with David Schwarzwälder (ICEX Stand H11/K40) at 13.00. On Sunday at the exhibition there will be a tasting of exciting discoveries from the tasting with Christoph Nicklas at the Meininger Verlag stand (13.00, H4/A52). The winners will also be available to visitors throughout ProWein in the ICEX Open Tasting Area (H11/K22). The victorious wines will be introduced online and in an extremely adaptable tasting catalog (see QR code) and in various Meininger publications.
>>> Click here for the catalog
>>> The full list of winning wines is available here
