Kosher Spanish Wine, Explained: Rioja, Tempranillo and What to Buy

Spain makes more wine than any country except Italy and France, and it grows more vines than either of them. For a long time the kosher share of that was almost nothing. That has changed, and the Spanish shelf is now one of the best value corners of the store - big, savoury reds for fifteen to twenty dollars that would cost thirty from France.

The trouble is that Spanish labels do not tell you the grape. They tell you a region and an ageing term, and if you do not know what those mean the bottle is a guess. So here is the short version.

Tempranillo is the grape behind almost all of it

Tempranillo is Spain's flagship red, the way Cabernet is Bordeaux's and Sangiovese is Tuscany's. The name comes from temprano, Spanish for "early", because it ripens ahead of the other grapes.

What it tastes like: red fruit rather than black - cherry, plum, dried strawberry - with a savoury, leathery edge and, once it has spent time in oak, a distinct note of vanilla and coconut from American barrels. It has real tannin but not the wall of it you get from a young Cabernet, so it drinks well younger. If tannin is a word you nod along to without being sure about, we explained it in what tannin actually is.

The Tempranillo shelf runs from about $14.99 to $26.99. Good places to start:

• Tres Buhis Tempranillo, about $14.99 - straightforward and fruit-forward, the cheapest honest introduction to the grape.
• Clos15 Tempranillo, about $15.99 - a bit more structure.
• Vizar Joven, about $16.99, and Vizar Roble, about $20.99 - the same producer with and without oak, which is the clearest side-by-side lesson on the shelf.

The words on the label: Joven, Crianza, Reserva

This is the part worth learning, because it is the only place in the wine world where the label legally tells you how long the wine was aged before it was sold.

• Joven means young - little or no oak, bottled to be drunk straight away. Bright and fruity.
• Roble means oak - a short stay in barrel, somewhere between Joven and Crianza.
• Crianza means at least two years of ageing with at least a year of that in oak barrels. Softer, rounder, more savoury.
• Reserva and Gran Reserva go further still, three and five years respectively, and are usually only made in good vintages.

So Clos de Torribas Crianza at about $17.99 is telling you plainly that somebody kept it for two years so you would not have to. That is unusual value.

Rioja, and the rest of the map

Rioja in the north is Spain's most famous red region and the classic home of Tempranillo. Ramon Cardova Rioja at about $16.99 is the one to buy if you want to taste what Rioja is supposed to taste like - cherry and vanilla and a savoury finish, the textbook version.

South of there, in Catalonia, Montsant sits next to the famous Priorat region and works with old-vine Garnacha and Carinena on poor, stony ground. Capcanes Peraj Petita at about $19.99 comes from Capcanes, the co-operative that built a dedicated kosher operation and is probably the single most respected kosher name in Spain. Peraj Petita is the younger, more approachable of its wines and it punches well above twenty dollars.

Further west, Bodegas Pinord Anfiteatro at about $36.99 is the serious bottle on the shelf - the one to open when the meal matters.

If you want Spanish but sweeter

Not everybody wants dry and savoury. Chateau Josephine Cabernet Sauvignon Semi Sweet at about $12.48 and Clos 15 Tempranillo Semi-Sweet at about $15.99 are the Spanish answer to that, and the dry version, Chateau Josephine Cabernet Sauvignon, is about $12.99. Our guide to semi-sweet reds covers that whole category, and dry versus sweet explains the difference properly.

There is also a small Spanish rose shelf if you are drinking pink.

What to eat with it

Tempranillo was built for roasted meat. Lamb is the classic pairing and it is classic for a reason, but it works just as well with a Shabbos brisket, with roast chicken that has taken on colour, and with anything grilled. The savoury edge that makes it slightly odd on its own is exactly what makes it good with food - it does not fight salt or char. Our wine and meat pairing guide goes further, and what wine goes with steak is the direct answer for a Crianza.

Where to start

Spend $16.99 on the Ramon Cardova Rioja. It is the most representative bottle on the shelf and if you like it, the whole Spanish section opens up from there.

The full Spanish shelf and the Tempranillo shelf overlap but are not identical, so it is worth looking at both. And if you are working your way through Europe, we have done the same job for Italy, Georgia and Bordeaux.