Roughly summarizing where the interesting action (as Bill Lundstrom remarks, not very interesting to the retailers) is happening:
- A general advance of a younger generation of grower-winemakers, vignerons with a solid technical background, well-traveled, but aiming to produce terroir wines, with a healthy disregard for technological ones. An increasing number are operating outside official appellations.
- Galicia and the rest of northwestern Spain, i.e. cool, wet Spain. Small producers sprouting up, with some traditions being revived (e.g. ageworthy unoaked albariño in Rías Baixas), several local grape varieties regaining attention (sousón, espadeiro, merenzao/verdejo negro/bastardo/trousseau, caíño tinto, brancellao, albarín/branca lexítima, monstruosa), with now a modicum of respect again for old-vines, post-phylloxera alicante bouschet; hillside viticulture on the upswing.
Producers: in Ribeira Sacra, Guímaro, Raúl Pérez, Niepoort, Algueira, Dominio do Bibei, Ponte da Boga, Sílice, Envínate; in Ribeiro, Luis Anxo Rodríguez, Coto de Gomariz (Xosé Lois Sebio), Lagar de Sabariz, Manuel Formigo, Casal de Armán; in Rías Baixas, Forjas del Salnés (Rodri Méndez), Do Ferreiro, Eulogio Pomares Zárate, Palacio de Fefiñanes, Pombal a Lanzada; in Monterrei, Quinta da Muradella (the great José Luis Mateo); in Valdeorras, Rafael Palacios, Mengoba, Telmo Rodríguez; in Cangas del Narcea, Monasterio de Corias, Escolinas; in Liébana, Picos de Cabariezo; in Bizkaiko Txakolina, Doniene Gorrondona.
- Catalonia's many newer quality producers, not all of them in Priorat, not all of them expensive (some very reasonable ones), several doing interesting things, as elsewhere in Spain, with old, low-anthocyanin red grape varieties that were previously despised and condemned to produce rosés: sumoll, trepat here; callet, moristel, juan garcía, rufete and, of course, garnacha elsewhere. Penedès, generally too fertile a zone, has been given a new lease on life by the return to the personal, structured whites and bubblies made with the xarel.lo grape. Orange wines, high-altitude wines near the Pyrenees... Lots of movement.
Producers (newer): in Priorat, Terroir al Lìmit, Les Cousins Marc & Adrià, Ferrer i Bobet, Familia Nin Ortiz; in Montsant, Espectacle, Portal del Priorat; in Penedès, Alemany i Corrio, Credo, Ton Rimbau, Pardas; in Costers del Segre, Castell d'Encùs (Raül Bobet); in Terra Alta, La Fou; in Catalunya, Puiggròs. And the two great cava producers: Recaredo, Gramona.
- The exotic rebirth of the volcanic, subtropical soils of the Canary Islands, particularly in Tenerife and La Palma with a few terroir-oriented growers and their terrific local grape varieties: Suertes del Marqués, Envínate, Ignios in Tenerife island, Juan Matías Torres, Teneguía and Eufrosina Pérez in La Palma. (OK, malvasía is not really local, but it's like trousseau, they've long been here.)
- A burgeoning region without an appellation (yet), that of the Gredos mountain range 50 to 100 miles west of Madrid. Either cool granite or warm schist, vineyards up to 4,000 ft altitude, old garnacha and albillo real (local white grape, minuscule berries) vineyards. Top producers: Marañones, Daniel Landi, Comando G, 4 Monos, Bernabeleva, Canopy, Jiménez-Landi, Arrayán, Telmo Rodríguez.
- The saviours of Rioja and Ribera del Duero, i.e., 1) modern wineries with a sense of tradition, and 2) vignerons making small-production artisan wines with a Burgundian or Loire mentality.
Category 1 producers, Rioja: Valenciso, Valserrano, Cosme Palacio, Amézola de la Mora, Hermanos Peciña. Ribera: Pérez Pascuas, Cillar de Silos, Carmelo Rodero.
Category 2 producers, Rioja: Olivier Rivière, Abel Mendoza, Exopto (Tom Puyaubert), Tentenublo (Roberto Oliván), Bhilar (David Sampedro), Remelluri/Telmo Rodríguez, Palacios Remondo (Alvaro Palacios). Ribera: Dominio del Aguila (Jorge Monzón), Galia (Jérôme Bougnaud), Bertrand Sourdais/David Hernando, Alfredo Maestro.
- South of Galicia and north of Andalusia, along the Portuguese border and throughout Castile and León, plus Extremadura, a bunch of courageous people have taken a cue from the mencía producers of Bierzo and begun working with local (or imported, but well-adapted to the terroir) grape varieties. Some names: for prieto picudo and albarín, Raúl Pérez, Dostares and Pardevalles; for rufete, Mandrágora, La Zorra and Ismael Gozalo; for trincadeira preta and touriga nacional, Envínate and Palacio Quemado.
- The undeniable rebirth of sherry (and montilla-moriles), mostly through the proselytizing efforts of that great duo of Equipo Navazos, Eduardo Ojeda and Jesús Barquín. (Barquín, Gutiérrez, De la Serna.... Rings a bell?)
- A few stubborn producers in southeastern Spain (very hot in the summer, Europe's driest region), still striving to prove that limestone and altitude make it possible to produce drinkable wines with some freshness even there, even with bobal or monastrell or syrah: Casa Castillo (José María Vicente), Juan Antonio Ponce, Mustiguillo (Toni Sarrión), Enrique Mendoza, Rafael Bernabé, Felipe Gutiérrez de la Vega, Los Frailes, Celler La Muntanya, Bruno Murciano/David Sampedro, Altolandón, Cien y Pico, Fil.loxera y Cia. (Pilar Esteve), Volver, Envínate, Atlan & Artisan, Celler del Roure (Pablo Calatayud), Castaño, Bruno Prats. I'm last and certainly least in this list. I still hope to organize a tasting of SE Spain in NYC sometime, under the grand theme, 'Mediterranean wines, yes Oak soups or fruit bombs, no".
