Rioja

Rioja is Spain’s best-known appellation, and for that very reason the one that drags the most clichés behind it. The image of an oak-aged Tempranillo red is real, but it barely scratches the surface.

There’s high-altitude Rioja, chalk-soil Rioja, single-village Rioja; there are Viura whites that last for decades and sparkling wines almost nobody knows about. It’s a huge, varied region, and that’s the fun of it: just when you think you’ve got it pegged, something turns up that doesn’t fit the mould.