One sparkler, two whites, nine reds and one dessert wine: the lovely pleasures of extravagance

Shooting for the moon, Spanish style

Can top flight Spanish wines challenge the best of France, Italy, California and the rest of the wine producing world? The question has been out there for a while with partisans on both sides. I’ve tasted some terrific Spanish wine over the years, and I’ve sensed that the top tier was gaining ground. My feelings were a bit tentative, however, and I did not quite have the confidence to make a bold statement about Spanish quality. A dinner last week featuring important Spanish wines put me on more solid ground with this thought. The quality of the wines I sampled is right up there. Take any premium wine, or at least a similar vintage, a comparable grape or blend and the same price range—and the Spanish will have a competing bottle.

The dinner was held at Solera, a Spanish restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and it was organized by Michael Cinque and Steve Gett of Amagansett Wine & Spirits. The goal was ambitious: to taste some of the finest wines coming out of Spain, along with some of the best Spanish food in New York. Spain exports very good and moderately priced everyday wines, but that is a different story. That night in New York, we were shooting for the moon in quality, and maybe in quantity too. In addition to a pre-dinner glass of cava, Spanish sparkling wine, we had two whites, nine reds and one dessert wine. All were good; some were standouts.

Naia 2003, made from the verdejo grape, is a rich, fragrant white with lots of character. The first course was a cerviche, and the verve and depth of the Naia made it a perfect match. Muga, a respected Spanish producer whose wines have good distribution in New York, was represented with two reds. Prado Enea Gran Reserva 1996 ($40), a blend with 80 percent tempranillo, was one of the older wines in the group, but still had a lively, youthful quality. It hit all the right notes and was highly satisfying. Torre Muga 2001 ($125 for a magnum) is a serious wine that should improve with the years. Intense and concentrated, it still exhibits a decided refinement.

Aquilon 2002, made from old vines garnacha ($125) was a knock-out with a big, woodsy, complex aroma of black fruits and flowers, and a full-bodied, layered palate. Termanthia 2002 ($159) was also powerful with a similar nose. It was finely balanced and as a result possessed an elegance I did not expect.

Dinner ended with Pedro Ximenez Solera 1927, a fascinating sweet red wine. I have to admit that with a dozen wines preceding this, my palate was tired. The aromas were intriguing, and the sweetness delicately balanced and not too heavy, but somehow it did not engage me. It was well received at my table and I’d love to go back and explore this wine another time. It sells for a surprisingly modest $16 for a half bottle.

The Spanish reds we tasted were big, bold, deep and lush, mostly fruit forward with a somewhat New World orientation. Going back to the original question about challenging other wine producing areas, I think the Spanish wines I tasted were at least on a level with premium Italian, California and Australian reds. It’s tougher to compare them to French first growths. The finesse and complexity of great Burgundy cannot easily be matched, and the subtle power of important Bordeaux reds cannot be achieved elsewhere, even in nearby Rioja. And that is fine for a lot of knowledgeable wine consumers. There is room in our lives for real Bordeaux and real Riojo without one trying to imitate the other.

I think the final answer is that Spanish vintners are doing an extraordinary job with their top quality wines, competing on price and quality with the rest of the world. It is not possible for me to generalize beyond that.

While France sets the model for certain wines, there are just too many grapes and styles and climates, and countries too, to be able to rank them by nation. More useful are smaller and more direct comparisons by grape—a California cab matched against a Spanish one, for example—or one estate against another estate. The smartest thing, however, is just to sit down with a selection of wines from any country you choose, and see if they gratify.

All bottle prices that I mention are current discounted prices at Amagansett Wine. The store has a policy of pricing its wine dinners, which are held at various restaurants in New York and the Hamptons, at $99 a person, including tax and tip. When you consider the quality of the wines that are served, certainly in the case of the Solera dinner, these are good values.