Red wine

Spanish red wine beyond Rioja

There is no Rioja on our shelves. Our Spanish reds come from places you rarely see in a supermarket: the Ribeira Sacra and Bierzo in the north-west, Utiel-Requena inland from Valencia, plus Ribera del Duero and the Penedès.

In the north-west, Mencía sets the tone. On slate and granite it smells of violets and sour cherry, with fine tannins and taut acidity, which puts it closer to a Loire Cabernet Franc than to a Rioja Reserva. Alongside it grow old Galician grapes that hardly anyone makes outside the region: Sousón, Caiño, Merenzao and Brancellao.

Further south, at around 700 metres near Requena, grows Bobal. For decades it was poured into blends for its colour and alcohol. From old bush vines and low yields it gives cherry, blackberry, wild herbs and an acidity you would not expect from the hot hinterland of Valencia.

Which red wine with which food

Serve Mencía cooler than most reds, at 15 to 16 degrees. It works with lamb, mushrooms, grilled vegetables and hard cheese, and it copes with tomato sauce and smoked fish, where heavier reds fall apart. Bobal likes 16 to 18 degrees and belongs with rice dishes, grilled meat and aged Manchego. For braises, ragù and game, reach for the Nebbiolo from Piedmont.

Four red wines to start with

• Noria Tinto de Eufemia 2025, CHF 23. 80 percent Bobal from old vines, 20 percent Merlot, six months in wood. Héctor Benavente farms the vineyards around Casas de Eufemia along permaculture lines. If you have never had Bobal, start here.
• Guímaro Mencía 2023, CHF 18. Vines around 40 years old on average, six months in steel, 12.5 percent. Raspberry, cherry, no oak. The most honest way into the Ribeira Sacra.
• Battaglino Nebbiolo d'Alba Paradi' 2023, CHF 16. Nebbiolo from the sandy soils of the Roero, twelve months in barrique, roses and spice on the nose. The bottle for a Sunday roast.
• Kaléidoscope Pinot Noir 2024, CHF 23. Oscar Hauser and Thomas Carl make it in Savièse above Sion: wild ferment, unfiltered, sulphured once, at bottling. Fruity and spicy, a Pinot for the dinner table rather than for reverent sipping.

Keep exploring by grape, region and grower

The grape behind most of these bottles gets its own piece in our Mencía story, Bobal in the Bobal story. If you have an evening to spare: José Mas makes a single wine in Bierzo, Massuria, and we have put aside vintages going back to 2007. Every colour is under All wines, the whites under White wine.