The very best way to discover a country is through its wine. A bottle encompasses the history, tradition, food and culture of a place, sometimes more effectively than any guidebook. Grapes tell you about the landscape and climate, while the way a wine is made reveals something about local tastes and customs.

Spain is particularly good at this. Its wine regions can feel like separate countries, shaped by different landscapes, grapes and traditions. On a recent trip, we put four serious Spanish reds to the test, three from Ribera del Duero and one from Priorat. All four have plenty to say about where they come from.

Eternauta 2021, Ribera del Duero.

Ribera del Duero has built its reputation on Tempranillo, known locally as Tinto Fino or Tinta del País, and on reds that can be dark, powerful and heavily structured. Eternauta 2021 offers a rather different interpretation.

Pepper and ripe plum lead on the nose, giving an immediate impression of warmth and spice. Take a mouthful, and there is cherry, liquorice and more dark fruit, but without the muscular tannins you might expect from the region. The finish is relatively light, and the tannins remain low and restrained.

That makes it an interesting Ribera. The region occupies an elevated stretch of the Duero valley in northern Spain, where hot summer days are followed by much cooler nights. That difference in temperature helps grapes retain acidity even as they ripen, one of the reasons Tempranillo has proved so successful here.

Eternauta shows the fresher, more approachable side of the region. Rather than being a wine that demands a steak and several hours around a dinner table, it could work with charcuterie, roast chicken or pork.

If your idea of Ribera del Duero is a huge red that needs years in the cellar before surrendering, this provides a useful reminder that the region has more than one gear.

Ferrer Bobet Vinyes Velles 2020, Priorat.

The odd one out geographically, and perhaps the most interesting as a result. Ferrer Bobet comes from Priorat in Catalonia, a landscape of steep hillsides, old vines and the famous dark slate soils known locally as llicorella.

The 2020 Vinyes Velles is 72% Carignan and 28% Grenache, picked by hand from steep slate slopes and terraces. Ferrer Bobet selects the berries individually and moves them through the winery by gravity before ageing the wine for 15 months in French oak. It is bottled without fining or filtration.

For all that serious winemaking, our first impression was how surprisingly light it felt. Vanilla and berries dominate the nose. On the palate, there is caramel, oak and restrained tannin. It feels thinner and more elegant than its imposing origins might suggest, although there is enough structure underneath to prevent it from becoming insubstantial.

That freshness is deliberate. Ferrer Bobet talks about trying to capture the mineral character of Priorat while retaining elegance and harmony, rather than simply making the biggest wine possible.

It is also a highly regarded bottle. Wine Enthusiast awarded the 2020 96 points, noting its combination of dark fruit, cedar, floral notes and silky tannins. The oak makes itself known, particularly through the vanilla and caramel, but this remains a composed, polished Priorat rather than a bruiser.

Marqués de Burgos 8000 2021, Ribera del Duero.

If Eternauta represents Ribera del Duero in a lighter mood, Marqués de Burgos 8000 comes marching through the opposite door.

The nose tells you immediately what is coming. There are oak, tobacco and leather, those wonderful savoury aromas that make mature Spanish reds so satisfying before you have even taken a sip. Underneath sit plum and dark fruit.

Then come the tannins. They are huge at first, coating the teeth and gums and giving the wine a formidable structure. This is Tempranillo with its shoulders back. The fruit is ripe enough to cope, however, and as the wine sits in the mouth, those initially aggressive tannins become much more balanced on the finish.

That muscular character is very much at home in Ribera del Duero. Tempranillo grown here can produce deeply coloured, concentrated wines, with dark fruit, tobacco, and vanilla among the region's familiar signatures.

The 8000 is made entirely from Tempranillo, which offers ripe plum, blackberry, toasted oak, and chocolate notes.

This isn't a bottle to knock back casually. Give it air, put some roast lamb or beef on the table and take your time. Of the four wines, it makes perhaps the most immediate statement about the traditional appeal of Ribera del Duero.

Carmelo Rodero Pago de Valtarreña 2020, Ribera del Duero.

You know someone wants you to take a wine seriously when merely lifting the bottle feels like the opening round of a weightlifting competition. Pago de Valtarreña arrives in an enormously heavy glass bottle, and fortunately, there is a serious wine inside it too.

Bramble and pepper emerge first on the nose. The palate brings berries, soft dark fruit and prunes, followed by gentle tannins and a lovely leather note on the finish. It is powerful, but the interesting thing is how soft it feels. Nothing needs to shout.

There is some impressive history behind it. Carmelo Rodero's family had grown grapes for generations, and Rodero sold fruit to leading producers, including Vega Sicilia, before establishing his own winery in 1990. Pago de Valtarreña comes from a family vineyard planted with Tinta del País vines around 45 to 55 years old.

The fruit is hand-harvested, and the wine spends 24 months in 225-litre French oak barrels. Those old vines and long ageing help explain the concentration, but also the texture. Carmelo Rodero has even developed a patented gravity-based winemaking system designed to reduce pumping, protect the grapes and limit premature oxidation.

It makes Pago de Valtarreña an excellent final glass in this small tour of Spain. There is plenty of dark fruit and oak, but neither dominates. The prunes, brambles, pepper and leather gradually reveal themselves as the wine opens.

The bottle may announce its ambitions rather loudly. The wine itself doesn't have to.

Our wine enthusiast Nathan lives in Leeds and runs the PR and marketing company Campfire PR.
https://campfirepr.com/