{"id":1840,"date":"2021-02-02T11:36:01","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T11:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vegatolosa.com\/?p=1840"},"modified":"2026-09-08T13:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:16:14","slug":"tipos-de-vino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vegatolosa.com\/en\/tipos-de-vino\/","title":{"rendered":"Types of wine in Spain according to different criteria"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Wine is bottled poetry\u2019,<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0said Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous writer of Treasure Island. Most likely he was referring to the Spanish wines<\/strong>. Almost all types of Spanish wine can be called treasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you list the emblems that represent Spain, Spanish wines will surely be found next to flamenco and bullfights. And for good reason: Spain is the third world producer of wine by volume and the first in vineyard area, with about 13\u00a0% of the vineyards of the planet. The sun warms them and the earth gives them strength, and that is why Spanish wine is not just a drink: It's a symbol of the country. Here there are more than a hundred certified wine regions, where several tens of thousands of producers produce hundreds of types of wine. Winemaking is one of the most important parts of the Spanish economy and one of the traditions that the country prides itself on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What characterizes Spanish wine?<\/h2>\n\n\n

Spain dedicates around 919,000 hectares to the vineyard \u2013 the largest area in the world \u2013 and cultivates more than 300 grape varieties, many of them indigenous and without equivalent in other countries. That diversity, added to a centuries-old tradition and current winery technology, is what distinguishes Spanish wine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spanish wines are thought to be more astringent and strong than Italian and French wines. These three countries have been competing for a place in the world market for centuries. Many types of Spanish wine have strong flavors, especially reds. In Spain, white, red and ros\u00e9 wines are produced, but it is the Spanish reds that are considered one of the best in the world. They have intense aromas of black and oak fruits, and marked tannins. Whites and ros\u00e9s, on the other hand, are fresh and pleasant, with fruity notes and a good balance of acidity. Semi-dry and sweet Spanish wines are not so common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The combination of the most modern technologies and ancestral traditions makes Spanish wines special. So special that collectors come to pay remarkable sums for a bottle: in Sotheby\u2019s, in 2010, a Vega Sicilia reached EUR 4 000. A year earlier, a batch of 23 bottles of the same wine sold for almost 103,000 euros. There have been exercises in which the house entered up to a million dollars with Spanish wines alone. This demonstrates once again the high quality of the types of Spanish wine, recognized beyond the borders of our country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since when is wine made in Spain?<\/h3>\n\n\n

Spain was one of the first wine-producing countries in Europe. Its origins are lost in antiquity \u2013 there are winemakers who dispute whether the trade predates Spain itself \u2013 and production was not interrupted either with the Visigoths or during the Muslim presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Spanish science and art of winemaking have their origins in such a distant antiquity that some winemakers argue whether the craft of making Spanish wines appeared before Spain itself. One thing is for sure: Spain was one of the first to start producing wines in Europe. Neither Visigoths nor Moors could stop wine production. The Spanish kings took the production of this drink to a qualitatively new level: Different types of Spanish wine began to be supplied to England. Today, the British drink almost 5 million liters of Spanish wine a year. We can say that thanks to the inhabitants of England, the whole world learned what sherry is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What types of wine are there in Spain?<\/h2>\n\n\n

There is no single classification: the same wine is ordered at the same time by its color, by the sugar it conserves, by the time it spends aging and by the carbonic gas it retains. The label usually collects the four criteria, and each responds to a different decision in the winery.<\/p>\n\n\n

Criterion<\/th>Categories<\/th>Wine of Vega Tolosa<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Colour<\/strong><\/td>white \u00b7 red \u00b7 pink<\/td>Tardana<\/a> \u00b7 Vega Tolosa Bobal<\/a> \u00b7 Bobal Icon Ros\u00e9<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Sugar<\/strong><\/td>dry \u00b7 semi-dry \u00b7 semi-sweet \u00b7 sweet<\/a><\/td>Capricho DiVino Bobal<\/a>, semi-sweet<\/td><\/tr>
Parenting<\/strong><\/td>young \u00b7 oak \u00b7 aging \u00b7 reserve \u00b7 gran reserva<\/a><\/td>Bobal Icon Tinto<\/a>, 6 months in barrels<\/td><\/tr>
Carbon gas<\/strong><\/td>calm \u00b7 needle \u00b7 pearl \u00b7 sparkling<\/a><\/td>Brut Nature Tardana<\/a>, sparkling<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
The four criteria that classify any wine. Each is thoroughly explained in its own article.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n

Currently in Spain<\/a> about 919,000 hectares are dedicated to the cultivation of grapes and more than 300 different varieties are grown. On the surface of vineyards, Spain occupies the first place in the world. This creates a unique opportunity for Spanish winemakers to constantly experiment and create new types of wine. There are many types of wines in different price categories. Economic wines sometimes deserve the same attention as those sold in wineries. Great fruity pleasures can be found below 10 euros, but there are also more daring and high-end red wines that easily combine with the best collector wines in the world. The types of wine differ by color, taste (depending on residual sugar), origin, alcoholic strength (from 8 to 23 degrees) and age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How are wines classified by their colour?<\/h3>\n\n\n

In whites, reds and pinks. White is obtained by pressing the grapes and soon separating the must from the skin. The red takes its color from the pigments of that skin during maceration. Pink follows the same path as red, but with much shorter contact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By its color the types of wine<\/a> are subdivided and classified into whites<\/a>, red<\/a> y ros\u00e9<\/a>. White wines are obtained by pressing white and black grapes. The color of red wine is obtained based on the pigments that are in the skin of the grape. Pinks get their color similar to red, but the contact time between wort and skin is much shorter. Within each color there are different styles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wines whites<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n