What makes a Spanish wine clubbable

Several major wine-producing countries have a private association of top producers. France doesn’t bother because it has a long history of official classifications of them, in Bordeaux at least. But Germany has the VDP (Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter), an association that dates from the early 20th century of many of, but by no means all, the best growers. Italy’s counterpart is much younger.

The Istituto Grandi Marchi (great brands) wasn’t formed until 2004. Well-known producers such as Antinori, Ca’ del Bosco and Masi get together to put on tastings, both in Italy and abroad, and spread Italian wine culture.

The Spanish counterpart is Grandes Pagos de España (GPE), founded by the late Carlos Falcó to promote his eponymous Marqués de Griñón estate south of Madrid and four others in Castilla. By 2004 it had expanded out of Castilla to become a national association with 12 members. Twenty years later it has 34.

While the Italians concentrate on commercial reputation (and some of those Italian brands in the Istituto are quite big and geographically widely spread), the Spanish association is all about specificity. Members of GPE have to be single-estate producers dedicated to expressing terroir.

Like the VDP, the GPE claims to have internal checks that standards continue to be met. Part of the GPE mission, apart from preserving Spanish viticultural tradition and excellence, is exchanging information, particularly technical information, between producers, which seems like a good idea to me. Currently, 26 of the 34 members farm organically (13 of them certified organic) and three follow biodynamic principles, two of them certified biodynamic.

If you look up pago in a Spanish dictionary, you’ll be told it means “pay” but in a wine context the word signifies a special vineyard. In 2003, the Spanish authorities, with strong encouragement from Falcó, created a special category, Vino de Pago, a wine from a particular terroir.

Somewhat confusingly, Vinos de Pago and members of the GPE overlap but are not identical — to the extent that GPE is even considering changing its name. While a Vino de Pago must come from a single vineyard, GPE members’ wines don’t have to. They can be a blend of wines from several vineyards, so long as all those vineyards belong to the member.

Members of the GPE came over to London late last year to show off their wines and conduct masterclasses at the West London Wine School near Chelsea Harbour. Just days earlier, Spain’s most famous wine journalist, Víctor de la Serna, had collapsed in his office at El Mundo and later died at the age of 77, and the wine producers at the gathering were still in a state of shock.

One wine from each of the 34 members was shown and I tasted them all except for the last one, Valdespino’s Inocente Fino Sherry, which I already knew and admired. It was rather fitting therefore that the wine from Finca Sandoval, the estate founded by de la Serna in 1998 in the then little-known Manchuela region, was looking especially good at the tasting.

Another of the 15 wines that I rated at least 17 out of 20 was the Marqués de Griñón 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Dominio de Valdepusa pago founded by de la Serna’s friend Falcó. To have almost half of the wines scored so highly suggests that the Grandes Pagos de España members were well chosen and that standards are generally maintained.

I marked five wines down to 16 out of 20 — four of them because they were just too heavy and obviously over-alcoholic, the first three made from imported French grapes: Clos d’Agon 2019 Catalan blend of white wine grapes from the Rhône, Chivite’s 2021 Colección 125 Chardonnay and the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon from Pago Dehesa del Carrizal in Castilla-La Mancha.

Numanthia 2018 Toro red was a particularly overripe version of the Spanish grape Tempranillo from an estate owned by LVMH. It is surely made to a fresher recipe nowadays.

The fifth, a Galician 2023 Albariño from Fillaboa, just seemed a little duller than many of its peers. And I’m afraid I found Fuentes del Silencio, Las Jaras 2020 from north-west Spain too porty to give it even 16 out of 20.

All the rest I gave the very respectable score of 16.5, although all my specific recommendations in the list that accompanies this article earned at least 17.5. My top score of 18.5 went to Belondrade y Lurton’s creamy, complex white from Rueda near Valladolid. It is clearly made from superior Verdejo grapes but owes quite a bit to the most sensitive use of top-quality French oak.

But I was almost as enthusiastic about a sparkling wine from Grandes Pagos’ newest member Alta Alella, a wine with the almost impossibly long name of Mirgin Opus, Paratge Qualificat Vallcirera 2019, as unlike typical Cava as it is possible to imagine. Who would have thought such tension and depth of flavour could be coaxed out of grapes — 60 per cent Chardonnay and 40 per cent the local Pansa Blanca — grown on the Costa Brava?

Aalto 2021 was a truly sophisticated Ribera del Duero that could already be enjoyed, but should have a satisfyingly long life.

Another favourite was the only Mallorcan wine, Desconfío de la Gente que no Bebe 2022 from Ribas, which, like many of these wines, was all of 15 per cent alcohol but delicious and beautifully balanced. In this case it’s not unlike a great Garnacha/Grenache.

“If we picked the local Manto Negro grapes at a potential alcohol of 14 per cent, half the grapes would be green as they ripen so unevenly,” explained Javier Servera Ribas, whose family’s bodega has one of the longest winemaking histories in Spain. The name is supposedly a quote from Humphrey Bogart: “I distrust people who don’t drink.”

The Grandes Pagos is by no means a comprehensive collection of the finest wines of Spain, but these wines certainly demonstrate just what a varied treasure trove of great and generally not overpriced wine Spain now offers.

Tasting notes, scores and suggested drink dates on Purple Pages of JancisRobinson.com. International stockists on Wine-searcher.com

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