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From our April 2005 Newsletter. Get the new stuff for free: wine newsletter or check out our blog: wine ratings and reviews.

The Wines of Spain: Ribera del Duero

If you looking for bang for your buck, you will be well served by exploring the wines from the Spanish region of Ribera del Duero. These are muscular, fruit forward, food-friendly reds worthy of your time.

Too often, talk of micro-climates producing outstanding wines is marketing speak, but not in the Ribera del Duero. It is a classic wine growing region with modern ideas about what wine can be. The wines are that rare crossroads between intensity and sophistication.

Dominated by the Duero river which flows through Spain and into Portugal, the region is experiencing a viticultural gold rush. Wineries, or bodegas as they are called in Spain, are popping up on every available acre of farmland, and brash, young wine-making talents are flocking to the region to ply their trade.

Spain has been slow to get in on the international wine craze. It lags far behind France, Italy and California in terms of both grape production and wine export. This is partly to do with the traditional regulatory system, similar to that of Italy, which didn't grant Ribera del Duero DO status until 1982, despite producing one of Spain’s finest and most expensive wine for over a century.