Map of Wine Regions of Spain - From Rioja to Sherry

What follows is a slightly preposterous, impractical journey around all the DOs on the Spanish mainland (you'll see the wine regions in the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands, as well, if you zoom out or scroll around), from its most famous wine region nowadays, Rioja, to its most famous region of all times, Sherry. Spain's wine regions are legion and growing in number (a first look at the map shows how evenly spread throughout the country Spain's wine regions are, but we shall soon see patterns forming). Though essentially bureaucratic in nature, the "traditional" wine regional unit has long been the denominación de origen, denomination or designation of origin, the Spanish equivalent of the French Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée, and although new regional divisions are emerging, notably the Vinos de la Tierra which correspond to larger scale geographical and political areas than most denominaciones de origen, DOs are still the most readily understandable reference points and are those I shall use in the description of the map of Spanish wine regions above.

Rioja. Spanish wine's superstar regions are undoubtedly Sherry, in the province of Cádiz, and Rioja (corresponding to most of the province of La Rioja, plus the Rioja Alavesa in the south of the Basque Country). You will find Sherry towards the southern tip of the peninsula, labelled with a yellow marker), and Rioja to the east of Burgos or south of Vitoria-Gasteiz, tagged with a purple marker. Let's begin there. Rioja the wine region overflows from La Rioja the province, which contains the two subzones of the Rioja Alta (capital Haro) and Rioja Baja (capital Logroño, which is also the capital of the province and autonomous community of La Rioja), into the Rioja Alavesa in the Basque Province of Álava. Rioja is essentially the most French of Spanish wine regions, its preeminence being due to desperate French vintners seeking alternative supplies when the Phylloxera epidemic devastated French vineyards in the second half of the nineteenth century (in contrast, Sherry is the most English Spanish wine region, as we shall see). Rioja has a history of careful, scientific wine-making, of highly skilled sumillleres and enologists working together over years and decades to make beautifully crafted wines, brews which these days have little to envy in their Gallic counterparts.

The Duero and Castilla-León. Not far from Rioja, though, is Duruelo de la Sierra, in the province of Soria, the place where the River Duero has its source (I have labelled it with a blue "pin" marker). From there, the Duero flows west across Old Castile, present-day Castile and Leon, and the first wine region it flows through, Ribera del Duero, has reached heights very nearly as great as Rioja. It doesn't stop there, though, for the Duero is the Iberian Peninsula's greatest wine river, and the high-altitude region of Castilla-León, with its harsh, continental climate (relentlessly baking, dry summers, bitterly cold winters, and almost no spring or autumn), contains some of Spain's most important DOs (and a couple of interesting minor ones). As well as Ribera del Duero, Rueda, Toro and Cigales are well established names in the Spanish wine firmament, and new DOs include Arlanza (in the province of Burgos), Tierra del Vino de Zamora, and Arribes del Duero (in the province of Salamanca). Tierra de León is a different kettle of fish, off the Duero route, though also ancient wine- making country. And as you head from León towards Galicia, you find the market garden area of Bierzo or El Bierzo, where very fine, sometime top-quality wine is made. And as we are next to Galicia, let's go in.

Galicia. At first sight, the number of DOs in green, rainy Galicia surprises, but it is typical of the region to find microclimates, many fairly arid. And most of the region's viticulture takes place inland. Galicia's traditional wines are white, though market demands mean perfectly good reds and, especially, rosés, are also made there. Galicia's most inland province, Ourense or Orense, has four DOs: Monterrei in the south, Valdeorras (about which great praise is heard) in the north-east, the very lovely Ribeira Sacra region in the north (overlapping with the south of the province of Lugo), and Ribeiro in the west. Though not the best of these four, Ribeiro is your Galician's wine, what he will ask for when he is in an alien, foreign place (e.g., Madrid) and feels the Celtic nostalgia, longing for things lost, called morriña - it is the Galician form of the Portuguese saudade, for Galicians and Portuguese are brothers, much more so than Galicians and Castilians. The last Galician DO is Rías Baixas in the province of Pontevedra, and it is the most surprising of them all, for its Atlantic , rainy climate seems to be no impediment to its production of fine, sometimes fabulous wine, especially but by no means exclusively white wine. Let's take a look at what the rest of the north of Spain has to offer wine lovers.

The Basque Country. Wine-making is absent from Cantabria and Asturias (though they have other attractions), so the next wine-tour stop for us is the Basque Country, known for a particularly interesting, usually white wine: Txacoli (alternative spelling and pronunciation Chacolí). It is made in all three Basque provinces (Vizcaya, Guipúzcpoa and Álava), but is most typical of Vizcaya. The Guipuzcoan version - Chacolí de Guetaria-Guetariako-Txakolina - is only produced in the area of Getaria, a fishing port-turned-tourist centre where visitors flock to the fish restaurants, the meal, naturally, being accompanied by Chacolí. Apart from this, Chacolí is more suitable as an aperitif, and Basques themselves will almost inevitably accompany a meat dish with a Rioja or Ribera del Duero. But Txakoli is a Basque sign of identity, like Guiness to an Irsihman. Now, let's step back west a little to the Cantabrian mountains, for there we find the source of the immense River Ebro.

The Ebro, Navarre and Aragón. Not so much as the Duero, but the Ebro, the longest and largest river in Spain, is also very important in viticultural terms. You'll find the source of the Ebro on the map in a tiny place called Fontibre in the Campoo region of the Cantabrian mountains in the north of Spain (I have labelled it on the map with a blue "pin" marker). From there, it flows south-east out of Cantabria, clips through Old Castile at Miranda del Ebro, crosses La Rioja, makes a brief acquaintance with Navarre, then flows majestically across Aragón, totally conditioning its geography, especially that of the province of Zaragoza, before emptying into the Mediterranean through the Ebro Delta in the south of the province of Tarragona. Along the way, it is lined on either side with wine regions, beginning, yet again, with Rioja. At varying distances from the Ebro but all influenced by it, there follow Navarra, and the typically Aragonese DOs Campo de Borja, Calatayud, and the excellent Cariñena. And while we are in Aragón, let's take a minute to examine its only non-Ebro DO, Somontano in Huesca, one of Spain's fastest rising wine regions (and number one on an unscientific classification I have made myself).

Catalonia. With its wine regions in the various sierras overlooking the Mediterranean, the region of Catalonia in the north-east corner of Spain is another superpower in the Spanish wine world, as is shown by the awe in which the Priorat region in the province of Tarragona is held. Other DOs in Tarragona are Terra Alta, Montsant, Tarragona, and the Catalonia-wide Catalunya, but special mention must be made of the DO Conca de Barberà, almost inevitably included in lists of Spanish "wines-to-watch." Neighbouring Barcelona province is less profusely endowed with wine regions, but has a couple of the biggest names in Spanish wine - Penedès and Cava. Cava is actually not regionally specific, some being made in Aragón, for example, but most of it comes from the Penedès region (which is also a particularly attractive area, and enotourism is an obvious choice for visitors there). Alella is a long established wine region and the newish (1995), inland Pla de Bages is another name to keep an eye on. Catalonia's northernmost province Girona, is not really a wine producer to speak of, though the Empordà region (formerly Ampurdán-Costa Brava) has a certain interest.

Levante. South of Catalonia is the Spanish Levante, the east-facing lands of the Catalan-speaking Valencia region and Murcia. The province of Castellón is negligible in wine terms, which is more than compensated for by its southern neighbour, the province of Valencia, the hills of which harbour wine regions of great interest, beginning with the double-barrelled Utiel-Requena in the north, and going on to the three sub-zones which make up the Valencia DO. And while Alicante has but a single wine DO, Murcia has three, all first-rate: Bullas, Yecla and, especially, Jumilla.

Castile-La Mancha. Jumilla overlaps the provinces of Murcia and Albacete, which takes us nicely into the region of Castilla -La Mancha (the southern meseta), for Albacete has historically been considered part of the Levante region. Albacete has another two wine DOs, both new (as such) - Manchuela and Pago Guijoso, about which I am afraid I know nothing. North of Albacete is the province of Cuenca, again with two DOs, again new - Ribera del Júcar in the south and Uclés in the north-west. From there, it is a hop north into the province of Guadalajara, which has a single, new DO, Mondéjar. And while we are in Castile-La Mancha, let's cross over the regional border into the autonomous community of Madrid which, whatever the political boundaries say, belongs to New Castile. Vinos de Madrid has three sub-zones, all to the south of the city of Madrid itself, that of Arganda del Rey producing the best results. A step over the border takes us back into Castilla-La Mancha, into the province of Toledo, which has two DOs, the new Dominio de Valdepusa and Méntrida, where wines of startling excellence are occasionally produced. But it is neighbouring Ciudad Real which is almost the Spanish wine province par excellence, for it is the centre of the vast plain which is La Mancha, Don Quijote country.

La Mancha. True, this is a land of cereals, enormous fields of wheat, barley or rye, but it is also a historic wine region, with over 300 wineries included in the denominación de origen. DO La Mancha spreads out from Ciudad Real into Albacete, Cuenca and Toledo to make not just the largest wine region in Spain but in the entire world, nearly 750 square miles of it. To give you an idea, DO Rioja (which also spreads out beyond the borders of La Rioja itself) covers only just over 245 square miles. The whole of Greater London would fit into La Rioja comfortably. It is big. Much La Mancha wine is very ordinary, it must be said, but the many exceptions compensate for this. In the south of Ciudad Real, though, the wines made in the Valdepeñas region continue to disappoint, especially when you fail to specify Rioja or Ribera del Duero when you order a vino tinto in Madrid - the Valdepeñas you will be served will, most probably, be simply dreadful. So now, like the reconquistadores of the Middle Ages, we shall head south from New Castile towards Andalusia.

Andalusia and Extremadura. To find the only DO in the entire region of Extremadura, Ribera del Guadiana, straddling the provinces of Cáceres and Badajoz, we have to approach the border with Portugal. Ribera del Guadiana doesn't produce particularly outstanding wine, but is an attractive area and would be another possibility for enotourism enthusiasts. Andalusia, though its DOs are comparatively few for the size of the region, is more rewarding for wine lovers. In the north of Andalusia, Jaén lacks a wine DO, while the province of Córdoba has a single DO, Montilla-Moriles, but it is a great one, and being relatively unknown outside Spain is even more of a pleasure to discover. It makes top-quality, sherry-type wines, but don't think that these are imitations, on the contrary - the Pedro Ximénez's produced here are matchless. The provinces of Sevilla, Granada and Almería have no wine DOs, but in the south of Andalusia, the previously separate DOs of Málaga and Sierras de Málaga have now, sensibly, been merged (though perhaps you should be aware that they are different kinds of wine, Málaga being especially famous for its dessert wines, long out of fashion but which seem to be enjoying a slight upsurge in popularity). West from there takes us into Cádiz, the glory of which (for the purposes of this page) is the Sherry region, around Jeréz de la Frontera. Before we look at the Sherry region in depth, we'll glance a few miles north up the Costa de la Luz, at Condado de Huelva, where sherry-type wines are made. They are not very impressive, to be honest, but most enjoyable in situ (especially combined with the local seafood, which some would die for).

Sherry. The two DOs of Jeréz-Xérès-Sherry and Manzanilla-Sanlúcar de Barrameda (marked separately on the map) have recently been merged into the intimidatingly named Jeréz-Xérès-Sherry y Manzanilla-Sanlúcar de Barrameda, a wholly logical fusion, though again you might like to remember their slightly different origins. The fact that vino de Jeréz is better known in the world as Sherry speaks volumes, for the English connection with this region goes back centuries. Jeréz or Sherry owes much of its identity to the fact that it has been made for consumption overseas. The reason for the fortification process, for example, is to protect the wine from the violent movements involved in being carried as ship's cargo, and in turn this fortification is the explanation for the fact that Sherry does not follow the añada system of identifying wine by vintage or year - Sherry is made to be the same every year. Sherry is not currently as fashionable as it has been at certain times, but this barely affects its quality, and its different types - fino, manzanilla, amontillado, oloroso, palo cortado, or the various kinds of sweet sherry which are less often encountered in Spain itself - are as good now as they were in, say, 1968, and will be in 2048.

This map of Spain comes courtesy of those nice young people over at Google, bless their little cotton socks. It will centre where you double click, you can pan over it using the arrows (or dragging the rectangle in the overview map in the corner), and you can zoom in and out using the '+' and '-' buttons. Neat, ain't it? I have pre-selected the "Hybrid" view, just because I happen to like the look of it — if you are looking for a road map or a street map, just click "Map" (or "Mapa" or whatever it says in your language). Or select the "Satellite" view to remove the place names and other map elements.

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