By happy coincidence this year’s Ribera del Duero 2025 Selections with Tim Atkin MW tasting on November 13 coincides with World Tempranillo Day, the grape variety most synonymous with the region.
This week’s event gives buyers the chance to taste over 150 wines personally selected by Atkin from the two weeks of intense tasting that he did in the region in September. Wines that he he believes best demonstrate what this exciting wine region has to offer wine buyers, wine merchants and sommeliers.
Winemakers and producers will also be present to talk buyers through their wines that Atkin has split into three key tasting areas:
* The Top 100 as selected by Tim Atkin MW
* Ribera del Duero on a Budget
* Unrepresented Wines – producers looking for distribution in the UK.
Here he explains the big steps the region is going through to take its wines to another level thanks to a new generation of winemakers and greater focus on vineyard origin.
To help set the scene for the tasting on November 13 where do you see Ribera del Duero as a region and why you think it is such an important area for buyers to be focused on?
I think Ribera del Duero is in a very exciting place right now. It’s important to remember that, even though the region has been making wines since Roman times, it’s Denominación de Origen only dates back to 1982. In that short period of time – just over 40 years, remember – the region has changed considerably.
Right now, it is producing the most diverse and, I think, the most terroir-focused wines in its history, at least at the top end. In my experience, British buyers tend to see Ribera del Duero as a little monotone, but I think that’s wide of the mark.
Tim Atkin MW’s Top 100 is based on intensive tasting in the region each September
So come along and taste wines from different villages and vineyards and try to understand what makes this region one of Spain’s finest, as well as the source of some of its most famous wines.
You have described it as one of the world’s most exciting wine regions – what makes it so exciting?
Above all, the diversity. But also, the fact that it is still something of a work in progress. Warmer and earlier vintages have made it possible to ripen grapes reliably in high-altitude or north-facing areas that were once considered marginal, so that has broadened the range of styles produced in the DO.
Most of the wines are dominated by, or made solely from Tempranillo, or Tinto Fino, as it’s known locally. This means that producers have the chance to express individual villages and vineyard sites through the prism of a single variety. It’s easier to talk about local and regional differences in Ribera del Duero, than it is in say Rioja, which uses more grapes in its blends.
I also think there is a group of very talented young winemakers in their 30s and early 40s who are taking the region to new levels of quality and complexity.
Could you have said the same five to 10 years ago – and if not what is driving those changes?
Tim Atkin MW has become arguably the most authorative international wine figure to assess Ribera del Duero on an annual basis
It’s an ongoing process and my feeling is that this is something that started just over 20 years ago. The things that are driving the changes are, as I said, the warming climate, greater focus on vineyard origin and an exciting generation of winemakers, many of whom have worked overseas before coming back to Ribera del Duero.
What do you think it offers that other regions of Spain can’t?
The altitude and climate of Ribera del Duero are not unique, but they are certainly unusual. So is the focus on a single grape variety, albeit with more things planted in the region than people realise, especially in old vineyards. As well as that, of course, it is home to two of Spain’s most famous wines – Dominio de Pingus and Vega Sicilia.
It’s all worth mentioning the white wines made from Albillo Mayor and the Rosados, or Claretes, which are part of an historic tradition in the region.
What can buyers expect at the tasting – you call it the Selection 2024 – how have you made that Selection
Every year I spend two weeks in the region in mid-September tasting nearly 600 wines and visiting a large number of producers to get the lowdown on the region. Based on that tasting, I select a Top 100. These are all wines that have scored 94 points or more.
Obviously, some wines are part of the selection from one year to the next, although the vintages obviously change, but there are always new discoveries, both for me, and for the people who come along to the tasting. I don’t have a favourite style of wine, although I tend to favour things with a recognisable sense of place.
The high altitude of the vineyards in Ribera del Duero are a key feature in the sytles of wines now being made in the region says Tim Atkin MW
I have done my best to pick a range of wines that express both the complexity and the diversity of Ribera del Duero, based on my knowledge of the region.
You also have a part of the tasting all about budget wines – why did you want to put a particular focus on that
Budget wines might be the wrong term. I prefer to talk in terms of value for money. Because of the steep prices of some of the region’s top wines – justified by the secondary market, I should add – people assume that Ribera del Duero is always expensive. But that’s not true. There are lots of more affordable, everyday wines, often sold as Robles, Crianzas and Cosecha bottlings.
So last year we decided to show 30 of those and it proved to be a popular feature of the tasting.
Why have you chosen £16 as the price point to define budget?
I think we chose €15 in Spain as out cut off point, so that the wines would all retail below £20 in the UK. Not cheap cheap, I will concede, but affordable for wines of good quality, all of which scored over 91 points.
Tim Atkin MW Ribera del Duero Selection
When: November 13 2024.
Where: Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH.
Time: 12pm – 5pm.
The tasting opens at 12 pm with the chance to talk to producers and their UK importers and taste a full range of wines from each of the main Ribera del Duero regions – Valladolid, Burgos and Soria – each of which produce very distinct wines.
At 3pm there will be a session with Atkin and Pablo Baquera from the Consejo Regulador de Ribera del Duero D.O where they will discuss a wide range of topics, ranging from the latest vintages and regional trends to Atkin’s reflections on his recent visit and the progress achieved across the region.
Register: Click here.
You can follow Ribera Del Duero’s activities in the UK on Twitter @DORiberaUK and Instagram @riberadelduerouk or visit its UK website https://riberadelduero.es/uk/
* Tim Atkin MW will be publishing his 2025 Top 100 Ribera de Duero report on his website on November 13. Click here to find out more.
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