Culture: Catalonia Calling: Searching for New-Wave Spanish Wines in Barcelona’s Wine Bars

On the first day of my last trip to Barcelona, my friend Fintan Kerr, a wine educator who’s lived here for a dozen years, suggests meeting for lunch at noon at La Vinya del Senyor, which has one of the best wine lists in town. “It opens at noon and has no reservations,” he texts. “If you’re there first, they have a table on the second floor with a little window looking out over the square. Grab it if you can!” Noon seems very early for lunch in Barcelona, and Spain in general, where most people dine after 2 p.m. But it’s tourist season, and Barcelona is one of the most touristed cities in Europe, so I understand the concern.

When I arrive, Fintan has already snagged the choice table, overlooking the Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar in the popular El Born neighborhood. The sunny plaza teems with tourists, entertained by a rotating bunch of buskers. Fintan has already ordered our first wine, a white chilling in an ice bucket. He wants me to taste it blind, which I do. It’s complex and fresh, by turns citrus, tropical, minerally, ripe and full of tension—and finishes long and cool. If it’s a Spanish wine at all, I think, it must be something coastal, possibly from Galicia? I’m wrong, it’s quickly revealed. It’s a 2016 Albillo from Dominio del Águila, one of the first whites released from the Ribera del Duero appellation (which only approved whites in 2019).

A white from Ribera del Duero—better known for its big, powerful, high-alcohol reds—is not what I expect for lunch in Barcelona. But these sorts of surprises have become common. Spain is deep in the midst of a generational shift in winemaking—a shift we’re only starting to see and taste in the U.S. That’s why Barcelona, with its seemingly endless array of wine bars, is a great place to check out the vibrant energy of what’s happening across Spain.

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Atlantic vs. Mediterranean

How can we describe the new wave of Spanish wine? In the most basic sense, it’s what Barcelona-based wine pro Nika Shevela calls “a welcome respite from the countrywide ‘3R’ dominance—Rueda, Rioja, Ribera del Duero.” Says Shevela, “Despite being ‘Spain but not really,’ we get a great representation of the most exciting corners and styles of Spanish wine country. Unfortified Palomino from Jerez? Check. Traditional method Txakolí sparkler from Basque Country? Check.”

There is a big discussion in Spanish wine circles about “Atlantic” versus “Mediterranean” wines, freshness versus power. For Atlantic wines, the textbook example would be the light reds of Ribeira Sacra in Galicia or the Canary Islands. For instance, the second wine Fintan and I tasted at La Vinya del Senyor was an Atlantic red, Eulogio Pomares ‘Carralcoba,’ from Rías Baixas (known more for its Albariño). This was made from the obscure grape Caiño Tinto. “There have always been Atlantic style reds in Spain, but now because of the international influence, they’re popular,” says Shevela, who runs a wine consultancy called Wine Alphabet. “When someone from the outside tells us our stuff is good, we finally accept that it’s good.”

By Mediterranean, what’s meant is pretty much the big, oaky classic reds you’ve come to expect from Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Priorat or the reds made from Monastrell from the south. Yet that’s not the only truth. Because you can find “Atlantic” wines from regions like Rioja and Priorat, especially at higher altitudes—which is also becoming a hallmark of the new wave. When it comes to making lighter, more drinkable wines from hot regions, winegrowers are finding—in our climate change era—that they can’t just keep doing the same things they’ve always done.

Catalonia Calling

“This is the moment in Spain. We are leaving the conventional wine era,” says Giuseppe La Porta, a sommelier at Bar Mut, a classic, polished spot to drink wine while dining on fresh Catalan seafood. On this afternoon, Giuseppe and I are having a few drinks at Món Vínic, a mod wine bar and shop in the downtown neighborhood of Eixample. To be clear, much of what you drink in Barcelona are the exciting wines from Catalonia. We tasted L’Anit de Frisach, a primal, rugged Carignan from Terra Alta, a little-known appellation in Tarragona province. This is the kind of natural-leaning, lighter-bodied red wine that’s popping up all over Spain.

The next glass was Batussa Negre, one of the most popular wines on the Barcelona wine scene, made by natural producer Óscar Navas. As we tasted the fresh, vibrant Batussa Negre, made mostly with Trepat, an obscure grape from Catalonia, we looked at each with raised eyebrows. Between the two wines, we were experiencing all the hallmarks of the new Spain: freshness, lower alcohol, lesser-known regions and rare grapes. “Yeah,” Giuseppe says, “we are not going back to the era of conventional wines.”

For years, Barcelona has been at the forefront of the natural wine movement, led by Bar Brutal, which opened in 2013. Bar Brutal is among my favorite wine bars in the world, a temple to natural wine, with a list full of hard-to-find bottles, an upscale punk vibe and great food. It’s a must-visit for wine lovers.

One evening, I meet my friend and natural-wine sherpa David Garcia, the manager at Bar Brutal, at a quirky, neighboring wine bar called L’Ánima del Vi, just down the gothic cobblestoned street. As a ragtime piano player entertains the crowded room, we sample wines from bottles displayed right on the bar. We sip a Moteur Pistache Rosé, from Majorca, made from a blend of Syrah and two little-known island grapes, Callet and Prensal. “Years ago, when I was studying to be a sommelier, there was only Tempranillo and Garnacha in Spain,” Garcia says. “Now, we’re embracing the local grape varieties.”

We move on to an amazing Mendall orange wine, made from Macabeo by Laureano Serres, a legendary Catalan producer in Terra Alta. Garcia has been dealing with natty wines long enough to have heard all the objections: It’s too funky, too many flawed wines, yada yada. “Ten years ago, people were more into funkiness,” he says. “If you came here in 2013, it was an exercise in winemakers trying to do something different. That was necessary 10 years ago, but now it’s different.” Like all revolutionary movements, natural wine has evolved. “Say what you want about natural wine—it’s made wine more approachable for younger people,” Garcia says.

You can see that young vibe all over Barcelona. I enjoy the casual, sort of hippie vibe of Bar Salvatge, where I drink more Frisach wines poured from the tap, as well as a bright red blend from Fanny Adams called “Carbonic Attack.” At a newish bar called Macot, in the Sants neighborhood, I order Envínate La Santa de Ursula, a blend of Negramoll, Listán Negro, and Listán Blanco, from the Canary Islands. An Atlantic wine from 100-yearold vines in volcanic soil, it’s fresh and juicy yet also intense and elegant, with a peppery punch, quite unlike anything you might expect from Spanish reds.

Yet with all the new energy, you can still find pockets of tradition. On one of my last days in town, I meet Nika Shevela at an old-school spot called Gelida that’s been in Eixample since 1946. Locals crowd into a dining room lined with yellowing posters of the Barcelona soccer club and ringed by wine barrels. Over a hearty lunch, Nika and I drink Vi Ranci—Catalan’s traditional aged, oxidized wines—out of the traditional porrón. As we pour the streaming wine into our mouths from above our heads, Nika, who grew up in the city, professes some slight embarrassment. “Barcelona is a place that’s positioned itself as an international city for so long that rediscovering tradition feels touristic,” she says. All the same, she tilts the porrón back in her mouth for a big swig.

Bottles to Try

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This article originally appeared in the November 2023 issue of Wine Enthusiast magazine. Click here to subscribe today!

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Last Updated: October 27, 2023