The first Spanish en primeur stars were Álvaro Palacios's L'Ermita and Peter Sisseck's Pingus, says wine merchant Quim Vila of Vila Viniteca. "This is a relatively new practice in Spain. There are about 10 companies offering this service, which is very common in France, Belgium, Switzerland or the UK. We've been doing it for 25 years. It's not that long in the wine industry," he points out.

En primeur sales have traditionally allowed the restaurant trade to buy at lower prices. However, over time, private consumers have become increasingly interested in it. "Many people with modern cellars or wine coolers that didn't exist before enjoy buying and storing wine,” says Vila. “There is a new kind of consumer eager to stock up on wines that will eventually disappear from the market." 

Sergi Arana, head of en primeur sales at Primeras Marcas, confirms the growing interest of private clients in large format bottles, creating their own verticals or collecting rarities. "In France, 80% of en primeur sales are to private customers," he reveals.

Primeras Marcas is part of the Juvé & Camps group and has a long-standing reputation when it comes to Bordeaux. In fact, the company has been selling Bordeaux en primeur in Spain since 1987. The first Spanish wineries to follow suit were Ánima Negra (Mallorca), Viña Sastre (Ribera del Duero) and Mas Martinet (Priorat) in the mid-2000s.

How to master en primeur

"Tasting en primeur is a challenging and specialized task that requires years of experience sampling different vintages," Arana points out.  "These are unfinished wines. You have to look for the quality and right amount of each element: fruit, acidity, oak, etc. "This, along with the history of the châteaux and the producer, should give you an accurate idea of how the wines will develop in the future."

Vila has been attending Bordeaux en primeurs for the past 25 years. He knows that tasting wines at this stage is a learning process. "Once you've tasted a lot of vintages, you start to have your references." I still remember the impact of the acidity the first time I tasted young German wines. "In Bordeaux, it's more about tannins, while in Burgundy in March, many wines may not have completed malolactic fermentation," he explains. In Spain, Toro reds can feel very tight, says Vila, while Mencía from Bierzo and Garnacha from Gredos can taste a bit reductive

He also warns that wines can change in this early stage. They can taste very different when first sampled in the cellar with the producer and then at subsequent tastings with the sales team, the press and customers.

On the other hand, the styles are not static. Bordeaux has come a long way in 50 years. Once struggling to ripen its grapes in each vintage, it fully embraced extraction and over-ripeness before reinventing itself towards the path of refinement. "They no longer have a need for over-ripeness. New oak is being eschewed to adapt to climate change, and this is helping to achieve finer tannins within a general trend where less powerful wines are favoured. This is also happening in Burgundy, where Louis Jadot is introducing foudres. These large vessels are typically associated with Mediterranean areas like Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Italy or southeast Spain. As a result, the wines are becoming much more precise," says Vila.

Sergi Arana agrees. "Wines are more approachable than ever. The notion that the priciest Bordeaux wines must be laid down for 30 years is no longer valid. Together with changes in winemaking and climate, we are also tasting the en primeurs a little later than a few years ago."

In addition to cheaper prices, what is the main benefit of buying Spanish wines en primeur? "In a few years’ time it will be relatively easy to find many vintages of well-known Bordeaux brands. This is not the case with L'Ermita or Pingus. You certainly won't be able to spot six bottles of Comando G's Rumbo al Norte no matter how much you are willing to pay for them," says Vila.

Sergi Arana stresses the importance of ensuring the wine’s provenance. "When it comes to top wines like Viña El Pisón, the most reliable option is to buy en primeur from the winery. Otherwise, be prepared to search for the wine many years later without knowing exactly where it has been all that time."

Read on for our guide to a handful of 2023 wines. The wines are ordered by producer and listed in alphabetical order. The wines from Artadi, Mas Martinet, Dominio de Calogía and Viña Sastre are part of the Primeras Marcas portfolio. The rest are sold by Vila Viniteca.

Álvaro Palacios (Bierzo, Priorat, Rioja)

Read our piece from late March marking the 25th anniversary of Descendientes de J. Palacios in Bierzo. We also have our tasting notes on the producer’s 2023 wines, plus Álvaro Palacios’ wines from Rioja and Priorat.

In Madrid, we retasted the wines from Rioja with Álvaro and his daughter Lola. Valdelarreina, the new 2023 release, is an expressive wine with floral and herbal aromas and the sexy side of Garnacha on the palate, without losing its sapidity. Quiñón de Valmira retained its striking aromatic depth.   

 
We also tried Valdafoz, a wine sourced from the eponymous site in Corullón (Bierzo) that Descendientes de J. Palacios makes exclusively for Vila Viniteca. The nose was somewhat reduced, which is frequently the case with Mencía at this stage, while the palate was firm yet displayed the variety’s distinctive forest fruit notes.

Artadi (Álava)

The López de Lacalle family made a strong showing at the Primeras Marcas tasting. Juan Carlos, his wife Pilar and their daughter Patricia were there, and Patricia told us that they are moving to larger 600-litre barrels to age their wines. Juan Carlos confessed that he is not that concerned about what the wines smell or taste like. Instead, his focus is on extracting the essence from each vineyard.

We identified Laguardia’s distinctive red fruit in most of the wines. According to Patricia, the 2023s taste slightly warmer than the 2022s, despite 2022 being a hotter vintage. This is due to the severe heatwave at the end of August 2023. The eastern-exposed Valdeginés vineyard displays dairy notes and firm tannins, while the west-facing La Poza de Ballesteros vineyard exhibits greater definition and ripeness and felt more approachable. El Carretil was lively and juicy, with crunchy red fruit and floral notes. It was very well balanced with fine tannins. The fruit of Viña El Pisón was riper, with its own distinctive character: almost exuberant, with a hint of orange peel and an enveloping texture on the palate. The tannins were firm yet very elegant.

Comando G (Gredos)

Dani Landi and Fernando García described 2023 as a dual vintage. It was a dry year, but there were two periods of rain and cold: at the end of May-early June and in September, when a cold front brought 200 litres of rain. They say it’s like 2020, but with more freshness. The 2023 vintage was unfortunately short. Barely a foudre of 1,000 to 1,400-litre was made from each of their single-vineyard wines.

The wines were remarkably open and expressive, in contrast to the reduction they typically exhibit at this stage –Fernando García is convinced that this is a more immediate vintage. Las Umbrías revealed fascinating crunchy red fruit and a fresh, deep herbal character. Las Iruelas exuded a minty quality in this vintage, with a fuller mid-palate in line with the schist soils it comes from. El Tamboril displayed a striking contrast between an ethereal nose (talcum powder, petals, pink pepper) and a firm, earthy palate. Tumba del Rey Moro was unquestionably expressive and scented, with slightly riper fruit and fine, subtle herbal tannins, yet perfectly integrated and balanced, and with remarkable length. Rumbo al Norte had the most exotic nose of the range. It displayed tangerine, sweet spices and bakery aromas, with maximum intensity on the palate, aromatic depth and a never-ending finish. 

The evolution of the Comando G wines and their ageing potential is a topic of much discussion. If we follow Fernando García's advice that 2023 is an approachable vintage, any of the wines are well worth drinking in three to seven years. There is no reason to postpone sheer pleasure.

Of the wines that Comando G makes in Gredos for Uvas Felices, Vila Viniteca's winemaking project, our favourite in the 2023 vintage was La Mujer Cañón. It had a great mix of crunchy Garnacha with a fruit-driven mid-palate over a mineral background, somewhere between dry stones and earthy notes. For the 2023 vintage, there's a new, more affordable wine with more sweet fruit, called Voladuras. It comes from a vineyard of just over a hectare, barely 100 metres from La Mujer Cañón. This first vintage is a selection of the vines in the centre of the plot.

Contador (Rioja)

Benjamín Romeo's wines showed good consistency, despite the challenges of the 2023 vintage in Rioja, including hail damage in some vineyards in San Vicente de la Sonsierra. His white wine, Qué Bonito Cacareaba, displayed generous fruit, an intriguing mineral side and enough acidity to balance it all. The combination of dry and honeyed notes was particularly appealing.

The reds will be in oak for almost nine more months before being bottled. La Cueva del Contador features a restrained ripeness and grainy tannins, along with plenty of herbal notes. This year, the wine has been made using grapes from high and medium elevation vineyards. The nose was quite expressive, with red rather than dark fruit. The 2023 Contador is more concentrated, with an appealing red fruit aroma (6% of cofermented old-vine Garnacha) and a liqueur-like palate. This is a firm red with plenty of depth, though it is restrained compared to the powerful vintages from the past. 
 
Romeo poured samples of these two wines from the 2018 vintage, which he believes is similar to 2023. In La Cueva, the style was a bit more extractive in 2018, but Contador was complex and nuanced with remarkable length.

Cuentaviñas (Rioja) 

As well as his Riojas from the Sonsierra area, Eduardo Eguren brought along a low-extraction Tinto Fino red from Ribera del Duero and a Garnacha from Cordovín (CDVIN) in Rioja's Najerilla Valley with a slightly warmer profile than previous vintages. The two top wines in the range, Yelsones and especially El Tiznado, offered both depth and juiciness in this vintage. If you're on a tight budget, Septeno, a Tempranillo from La Canoca in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, could be a good choice. It is a great introduction to the style of young terroir-driven Rioja producers who look for aerial, delicate reds and al dente ripening.

Dominio de Calogía (Ribera del Duero)

This is José Manuel Pérez Ovejas' personal project after leaving the family winery, Hermanos Pérez Pascuas. His flagship red Dominio de Calogía is a fresh, fruit-driven Tinto Fino, not too full-bodied, nicely structured and with relatively accessible tannins. The top red Cuvée S was much firmer and concentrated, clearly made for the long term, with pronounced, firm tannins.

Mas Martinet (Priorat)

As expected, Mas Martinet's finest wine was the high-elevation Garnacha Els Escurçons –very fragrant, with orange-peel notes and fresh herbal tones within a scented, nuanced Mediterranean style. With Cariñena dominating the blend in Camí Pesseroles, the sensations were just the opposite: a dry, austere Priorat with tight tannins, firmly anchored in the area's distinctive slate soils. Clos Martinet was somewhere in between: a serious, firm red that reflected the region's severe drought, more in terms of concentration than overripeness. Els Escurçons was love at first sight; the others need time to develop.

Pingus (Ribera del Duero)

The 2023s confirm the search for subtler reds with moderate alcohol for the region's standards: PSI and Flor de Pingus were below 14% abv, and Pingus was 14% abv. Surprisingly, the 340,000 bottles of PSI, Peter Sisseck's regional red, are all sold en primeur. At just over €25 for a wine that will eventually cost around €42, this is a good choice to start buying en primeur without breaking the bank. This medium-bodied red offered raspberry flavours over an earthy background and good length. It is a blend of Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) and 8% Garnacha. 

Flor de Pingus (over €100) showed good concentration and restrained ripeness, clearly avoiding warm notes and with more balance than complexity at this stage. Only 20% new oak was used, while Pingus now relies exclusively on seasoned barrels. Pingus was much more complex and less easy to define, with blue fruit, some liquorice and a very attractive combination of depth and juiciness.

Sierra Cantabria (Rioja)

The Eguren family group of wineries presented various vintages (Amancio en primeur is 2022, for example), but we focused on 2023. This included Colección Privada, 50% of which had undergone carbonic maceration, with lots of fresh fruit and immediate charm. It was the opposite of El Bosque, concentrated and firm but with good acidity, indicating a promising evolution. Mágico, which retails for over €400 en primeur, is a field blend of eight red varieties (except Garnacha, which is fermented separately and added later) and some white grapes. The energy, concentration and purity of the fruit, which easily prevails over the oak, make this a truly impressive wine.

Teso La Monja (Toro)

With fewer problems than in Rioja, the ripening process in Toro was relatively slow, an important quality factor in the area. We loved the freshness, balance and blue fruit character of Almirez, which is the perfect choice to start enjoying en primeur wines without taking any risks. You'd pay €16 compared to €22-25 for the current 2022 release.

With very balanced ripeness and no excesses at all, Victorino was more tannic and mineral, while Alabaster was more balanced, showing great depth and beautifully integrated alcohol.

Viña Sastre (Ribera del Duero)

The 2023s from this well-known winery in La Horra (Burgos) felt a little oaky, but there was enough weight, balance and ripe fruit to integrate the wood. Regina Vides had a slightly darker expression (black fruit, fireplace), while Pago de Santa Cruz combined red and black fruit with the luscious sweetness of American oak (Regina Vides is aged in French oak) and offered good freshness on the palate.

Viñedos de Páganos

We found it trickier to taste the wines that the Eguren family makes in Laguardia, because the oak presence is quite high at this stage. We experienced the same feeling with El Córner del Puntido, a red from a small section of El Puntido vineyard, which is close to La Nieta and shares the same poor, shallow soils, although it had good tension and red fruit; and La Nieta, which had a similar profile, but with more presence of fruit.

OUR TWO-CASE SELECTION

We have assembled two cases of six bottles each of all the wines we tasted, to provide readers with some variety in terms of producers and styles. The prices shown are retail prices in the case of Vila Viniteca and an estimation for Primeras Marcas. Some well-known online retailers such as Bodeboca and Decántalo are already offering some of these wines, helping to raise awareness of en primeur sales.

From Vila Viniteca. The six-bottle case contains two wines that can be enjoyed without much waiting, a Rioja and a Ribera. A step up, a Bierzo with ageing potential and more affordable than Las Lamas or Moncerbal, and a similar style from San Vicente de la Sonsierra in Rioja - La Cueva is more affordable in price and style than Contador. From Comando G, Las Umbrías, a personal favourite. Finally, thinking long term, I would go with Toro and choose the naturally balanced Alabaster.

From Primeras Marcas. I would choose the most enjoyable and aerial Mas Martinet, plus another to lay down. From Artadi, the accessible Valdeginés and El Carretil for storage. Finally, two relatively classic Ribera reds: Pago de Santa Cruz, traditionally aged in American oak, and Calogía, a refined version matured in French oak. I'd lay both down, especially Pago de Santa Cruz.