An old Spanish saying holds that, "Good wine ruins the purse; Bad wine ruins the stomach."

Thankfully for wine drinkers, the current vintage of wines from Spain seems intent on proving the adage wrong. Bottle-for-bottle, these days Spanish wines are offering more pleasure for the buck than any other region.

It’s no stretch to opine that there’s a general buzz for Spanish vino. Critics are raving, wine geeks are gossiping and casual wine drinkers are contentedly sipping. Call it a Spanish wine revolution, call it a renaissance, or simply just call it a good time to be drinking Spanish wine.

Regardless, we’re witnessing a real upswing in interest and quality. The happy result is an increasing plenitude of tasty, unique Spanish wines hitting our shelves – wines that are a joy to drink and wines that match particularly well with everyday living.

There is, of course, a tapas correlation. The rising tide of Spanish wine coincides nicely with the widely embraced tapas trend, though we’re not sure which came first, the plate or the bottle. This has led to a wellreceived infusion of Spanish passion into wine and food culture.

Of course, it hasn’t always been this way. Sure, Spain has long had its share of top drops, predominantly from the world-renowned Rioja region but historically-speaking much of Spain’s sea of wine was best served in a big jug of sangria. So what made Spain the wine world’s critical darling?

A confluence of factors, really, however some common themes appear. A new crop of winemakers has emerged, with a keen interest in sussing out both Spain’s unique cultivars as well as the country’s under-appreciated wine regions. With a dogged determination to give these grapes and locales their turn in the limelight, these vintners toil in their cellars and vineyards in order to expose the world to a whole new spectrum of Spanish wine and they have a lot of room to work with. What many don’t realize is that Spain actually has more land under vine than any other country.

This new appreciation for indigenous grapes and growing areas has been complemented by a change in viticulture. Modern winemaking practices actually arrived late in Spain, but the impact of techniques, notably temperature controlled fermentation, proved a boon to this country of typically hot and arid vineyards. This has also meant significant investment in new machines and equipment in the wineries, widespread interest in oak barrel aging and a focus on vineyard management – not to mention a confidence that Spain can deliver serious juice. All together, this allowed quality to improve in leaps, turning prosaic table wines from bulk producing wine hinterlands into bona fide value-busting, tongue-pleasers. It has also given rise to new Spanish regions that have become stars of the wine world, such as Priorat and Ribera del Duero.

Thankfully, so far Spain has maintained a nice balance of quality, value-focused wines that ooze character. Unlike some New World wine regions that have managed to technically massage all the soul out of their bottles and conversely some Old World stalwarts that refuse to allow stainless steel into the cellars, Spain has struck a nice balance of old and new. From racy white Albariños of the Galician coast to voluptuous, juicy and unoaked old vines Garnacha (Grenache outside of Spain) from vineyards throughout Catalonia, the wines ring a real chord that harmonizes with a wide audience.

The end product is a blend of distinctive Spanish wine tradition complemented by contemporary viticulture. In the glass, the wines shine, aptly suited to both dinner table and conversation pit, the best bottles combining great flavour intensity and foodpairing sensibility. It’s a one-two combo that has captured attention in this big flavour-thirsting, forward gastro-thinking, contemporary world.

So it’s not terribly surprising that every time we stroll through the Spanish wine section lately, we find a new, interesting bottle (often from a new, burgeoning region). No doubt about it, it’s an exciting time to be drinking vino and as long as the trend holds, we’ll have open purse strings – and open palates – for Spanish wines.