Conde de Valdemar Crianza, 2001 vintage
price: $12-$13
suggested food pairings: stews and braised red meats, smoked fowl, spicy grilled salmon

Spanish wines have taken a page from Italy’s new notebook and have made tremendous strides in quality over the last several years. Both countries have created and enforced new standards for their most famous wines and growing regions. Unlike Italy, however, Spain’s prices have remained low, which is why I’m drinking more Spanish wines than ever.

The joke has always been that in both countries, no great wine ever made it onto a ship for export because the folks who made it slurped it all up before it could be sent anywhere. They’re either making more good wine in Spain or the whole country went on the wagon, because there are dozens of quality labels in this price category in any decent American store.

The family that began Conde de Valdemar in the 1980s has been making wine in Spain for over a century. Conde de Valdemar was the Martinez Bujanda family’s pioneering effort in the region to modernize winemaking for the international market. Working in a modern facility on ancient wine growing land, the family still believes in wine being made during the growing season out in the vineyard. This mix of new methods while adhering to old principles has paid them, and Spain, in spades.

Rioja is known as the leading region for wine grapes, and Tempranillo is the signature grape. This wine is 90 percent Tempranillo, with the balance being Mazuelo—a grape indigenous to Rioja. Crianza is a grade of wine based mostly on the aging process. To be a Crianza, the wine must be two years old, with one year being barrel time. This example lived in American oak for 18 months and rested in the bottle for six months before release. It is a dark red with a rust hue to it, and smells like a perfumed berry bucket. There is a tart cherry acid on the palate, yet the overall mouth feel is plush with a suede impression—an interesting combination. The berries swirl around with barrel vanillan on the finish, and a snippet of spice pops up here and there. This would be delicious with Cajun grilled salmon steaks.