Spain has a long and ancient History of winemaking we’ve all heard about, dating back and even preceding the importation of the wine culture by the Romans.
The country boasts the largest vineyard surface area in the world, and has in recent years positioned itself as THE biggest wine exporter in the world, with nearly 2.3 billion litters exported in 2016, a 22% of the global wine export market!
When it comes to very expensive wines however, the country doesn’t necessarily come first to mind. Spain struggles to compete with some of the astronomical prices reached by the French collector wines that dominate the Top 50 Most-Expensive Wines in the World.
That said, if you look at the amount of money you’d have to spend to get your hands on a bottle of wine from the Top 25 most-expensive Spanish wines below, it must be recognized that there are dear and collectible wines from Spain.
1 – Sierra Cantabria Teso La Monja Toro
Average Price USD: $1,074
Grape Variety: Tinta de Toro (Tempranillo)
What is it about? The Eguren family I now famous for establishing new winemaking projects and bringing them to the highest global standards of wine quality. They fell in love with the land of Toro (me too :-), I even worked and made wine there for two years!) in the deep Castillan Spain more than 15 years ago, seduced by its pre-phylloxera vines, deep roots vineyards meticulously chose to translate the minerality of the soils in powerful and elegant reds. After selling early 2008 the Bodega Numanthia they had founded some 10 years earlier to the Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton LVMH group, the family stayed in the area and started the Teso La Monja project. While the bodega produces five different wines here, there most exclusive offering has become in just a few years THE most expensive Spanish wine! The winery’s other wines, most much more affordable are Romanico, Almirez, Victorino, and Alabaster.
Winery Website: sierracantabria.com
See it in Video:
2 – Dominio de Pingus Ribera del Duero
Average Price USD: $871
Grape Variety: Tinto Fino (Tempranillo)
What is it about? Dominio de Pingus is a small Bodega in the Ribera del Duero area of Castilla y León, founded by Danish-born Peter Sisseck in 1995. It very quickly gained a cult status thanks to raging reviews in Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. The wine is made through the blending of several small blocks of Tinto Fino old-vines, all delivering very small yields of highly-concentrated fruits. More a more affordable access to the Pingus universe, the winery also produces a second label called Flor de Pingus, and a wine made with selected local farmer’s grapes named PSI.
Winery Website: pingus.es
See it in Video: Peter Sisseck talks to James Suckling
3 – Descendientes de J. Palacios La Faraona, Bierzo, Spain
Average Price USD: $755
Grape Variety: Mencía
What is it about? Alvaro Palacios, who was already making wine in Priorat (see wine #4 just below), started the Descendientes de J Palacios project in Bierzo with his nephew Ricardo Perez in 1998. The area was relatively unknown at the time on the international wine scene, but counted with a wealth of very old vines from the local and distinctive Mencía grape variety. Sourcing grapes from old vineyards around Corullon, Alvaro and Ricardo have since established the brand has one delivering the finest wines from the area, and even the country. Pétalos del Bierzo is the entry-level wine you can relatively easily find on many markets, while the 5 single vineyards named Las Lamas, Fontelas, Moncerbal, San Martin and La Faraona are much more exclusive. La Faraona is the most praised of the 5 single vineyard wines, with only about 600 bottles of it produced annually.
Winery Website: there is none!
See it in Video:
4 – Alvaro Palacios L’Ermita Velles Vinyes Priorat
Average Price USD: $752
Grape Variety: Garnacha, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cariñena
What is it about? The other ‘cult wine’ by Alvaro Palacios who started his own project in Priorat in 1989. Alvaro’s family owned the prestigious Rioja winery called Palacios Remondo. After studying enology in Bordeaux (like me, yeah?!), and working with Jean-Pierre Moueix for 2 years at Pétrus in Pomerol, Palacios decided to start his own venture making wines from very old and gnarled bush vines in this underrated (at the time) part of Catalonia covered in steep, slate-based hillsides. Alvaro Palacios range also include the more affordable Finca Dofi, Vi de Vila Gratallops, Les Terrasses Velles Vinyes, and Carmins del Priorat.
Winery Website: there isn’t one!
See it in Video:
5 – Vega Sicilia Único Gran Reserva Ribera del Duero
Average Price USD: $416
Grape Varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo
What is it about? Unico is the flagship of the famous and long-established Bodega Vega Sicilia. Blend of Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon in different proportions every vintage in search of perfection. The vines are grown slopes. Fermentation using indigenous yeasts in wooden tanks, with malolactic fermentation also in wood. Then the wine goes through what could be one of the world’s longest winery ageing for a red wine, almost 10 years between wood and bottle. The different stages take place in different types of wine barrel: American and French wood, new and used 225-litre barrels, 20,000-litre vats, each batch is what determines the type of wood and the time spent in each container. All in all, Unico normally spends 6 years in wood and three in the bottle.
Winery Website: vega-sicilia.com
6 – Bodegas Hermanos Sastre Vina Sastre Pesus Ribera del Duero
Average Price USD: $314
Grape Varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Tempranillo
What is it about? Block selection from the winery’s Pagos: Valdelayegua, Canuelo and Bercial en la Horra (Burgos province). Vineyards averaging 90 years old on clay limestone soils at about 820 meters of altitude. 85% Tinta del Pais, and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Malolactic fermentation in barrel, followed by 18 months ageing in oak barrels. Annual production: 2000 bottles.
Winery Website: vinasastre.com
7 – Benjamin Romeo Bodegas Contador ‘Contador’ Rioja
Average Price USD: $292
Grape Variety: Tempranillo
What is it about? Mainly Tempranillo, with small proportion of Graciano and Mazuelo. Old vines trained in gobelet. 18 months ageing in 100% new French oak barrels. 15+% alcohol. About 5700 bottles produced annually.
Winery Website: bodegacontador.com
8 – Dominio de Pingus Amelia Ribera del Duero
Average Price USD: $290
Grape Variety: Tempranillo
Winery Website: pingus.es
9 – Clos i Terrasses Clos Erasmus Priorat
Average Price USD: $273
Grape Variety: Grenache/Garnacha
Winery Website: N/A
10 – Artadi Viña El Pisón Rioja
Average Price USD: $272
Grape Variety: Tempranillo
What is it about? Planted in 1945 by winemaker & owner Juan Carlos López de Lacalle’s grandfather, this small 6-acre single vineyard is nestled at the foothills of the Sierra Cantabria mountain, at one of the highest elevation grape-growing regions in Spain. Located in Rioja Alavesa and protected by a series of natural rock walls, Viña El Pisón lies in nutrient-poor, calcaric clay and rocky soils. Manually harvest in small 15 Kg boxes, best clusters selection at the winery. Fermentation in oak vats, malolactic fermentation in oak barrels, before the wine was aged in 225-liter first- and second-year French oak barrels with a light-medium toast for 12-16 months. Wine analysis vintage 2004: 4.9 g/l (0.49%) total acidity; 3.65 pH; 14.0% alcohol by volume.
Winery Website: artadi.com
11 – Tinto Figuero Tinus Ribera del Duero
Average Price USD: $211
Grape Variety: Tinto Fino (Tempranillo)
What is it about? 100 % Tempranillo. Single vineyard 70+ years old owned by García Figuero family. Ageing in 100% French New Oak for 22 Months. Alcohol (%v/v): 14,5% (vintage 2011).
Winery Website: tintofiguero.com
12 – Bodegas Hermanos Perez Pascuas Vina Pedrosa Gran Reserva Ribera del Duero
Average Price USD: $207
Grape Variety: Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) and Cabernet Sauvignon
What is it about? Limited production of numbered bottles, from a selected vineyards. Blend: 90% Tinto Fino (Tempranillo), 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. Ageing: 24 months in casks, 36 months in the bottle before release.
Winery Website: perezpascuas.com
13 – Numanthia Termanthia Toro
Average Price USD: $199
Grape Variety: Tinta de Toro (Tempranillo)
What is it about? Bodega Numanthia was founded in 1998 by the Eguren Family, and sold early 1998 to the Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton LVMH group. Tempranillo grapes are sourced from a single vineyard of 120-year-old vines (5ha – 11acres). Grapes are stomped by foot, fermented in oak vats before the wine goes through an extremely rare 200% new French oak ageing. After a first period of maturation in some new oak barrels, Termanthia is transferred to a second set of new barrels. Bodega Numanthia wine simply called ‘Numanthia’ goes through a less unusual 18 months aging in French oak barrel.
Winery Website: numanthia.com
16 – Bodegas Roda Cirsion Rioja
Average Price USD: $173
Grape Variety: Tempranillo
Winery Website: roda.es
17 – Bodegas Arzuaga Navarro Gran Arzuaga Ribera del Duero
Average Price USD: $170
Grape Variety: Tempranillo, Albillo, and Cabernet Sauvignon
What is it about? Blend of Tempranillo and Albillo (from centuries-old vines grown in red clay soil and fine sands with small stones on the surface) and Cabernet Sauvignon (from our La Planta estate, with limy soils that barely afford the growing of grape vines). The two plots share a high altitude, around 900 meters. Minimum yields and a very long growing cycle produce fully ripe fruit. Aged on its fine lees for 20 months in new fine-grained casks of French origin from the Châtillonais and Bertranges forests.
Winery Website: arzuaganavarro.com
18 – Bodegas del Palacio de los Frontaura y Victoria Aponte Toro
Average Price USD: $166
Grape Variety: Tempranillo
What is it about? Alcohol content 15,5 %. Made from 100+ years-old vines in D.O. Toro. Aged for 22 months in new French oak barrels. Annual production: 3,000 bottles.
Winery Website: bodegasfrontaura.com
19 – Anima Negra ‘Son Negre’ Vi de la Terra de Mallorca, Balearic Islands
Average Price USD: $165
Grape Variety: Callet
Winery Website: annegra.com
20 – Jorge Ordonez & Co. No 4 Esencia, Malaga
Average Price USD: $165
Grape Variety: Muscat of Alexandria
21 – Compañía de Vinos Telmo Rodriguez Las Beatas Rioja
Average Price USD: $160
Grape Variety: Rioja Blend
Winery Website: telmorodriguez.com
22 – Bodegas Muga Aro Rioja
Average Price USD: $158
Grape Variety: Tempranillo and Graciano
What is it about? 70% Tempranillo and 30% Graciano. Aged for 6 months in wooden vats, 18 months in new French oak barrels and at least 12 months in bottle.
Winery Website: bodegasmuga.com
23 – Artadi El Carretil Rioja
Average Price USD: $156
Grape Variety: Tempranillo
What is it about? 100% Tempranillo. Vineyard located in Laguardia in Rioja Alavesa at 500 meters of altitude, on deep clay-limestone soil. Vinification in wooden open-top vats with two daily pigeages (punch downs) and 1 small pumping over. Malolactic fermentation. Ageing for 12 months in new French oak barrel.
Winery Website: artadi.com
24 – Terra Remota Usted, Emporda
Average Price USD: $156
Grape Variety: Grenache and Syrah
Winery Website: terraremota.com
25 – Finca Allende Aurus Rioja
Average Price USD: $148
Grape Variety: Tempranillo 85%, Graciano 15%
Winery Website: finca-allende.com
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Also Read the Top 50 Most Expensive Wines in the World
This list of the Top 50 most expensive wines in the world was retrieved from the biggest wine price database in the world at Wine-Searcher.com as per October 2017, you can see the original list here. To be included on the list, a wine must have at least 10 offers worldwide across at least four vintages. Sherries are excluded. Prices are ex-tax worldwide averages for 750ml bottles.
Sources and References
State of the Viticulture World Market – OIV April 2017
Pricing Data from wine-searcher.com
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