SPANISH wine is cheap; that's universally acknowledged, as any expat from the UK who's just been on a return trip will bear witness. Low prices do not always indicate poor quality, either – even if you set your top budget at €2.50, you can find some very decent wines in the supermarket that will leave you with some change, and the house wine at most restaurants, from your family-run, scruffy-but-cosy bars to your three-Michelin-starred eateries, is nearly always very drinkable.
That's largely because Spain produces so much of its own wine that it does not have to import any – and, in fact, rarely does – unlike the UK where, apart from a few experimental vineyards in Suffolk and Kent that are more of a tourist attraction than a real mass production enterprise, pretty much all wine is bought in from elsewhere.
But if the thought of paying a couple of euros for a bottle is still a bit embarrassing and you want to push the boat out to impress your mates, there's plenty of potential for it among Spanish wines. Got a spare €1,650 you're just itching to part with? Well, the top-priced wine from Spain on the Parker List comes in at about what you'd pay for a week's full-board package trip to India departing from Madrid airport, all excursions included. worth it – even if only footballers and rock stars can afford them.
The Parker List – 41 years of tasting the best wines
It's great work if you can get it, and Robert Parker has it. Based in Baltimore, USA, he's one of the world's most acclaimed wine-tasters and critics, and anything that meets with his approval automatically acquires a price tag of three or four figures in dollars, euros or pound sterling. His bi-monthly magazine, The Wine Advocate, which he founded in 1978, classifies wines on a scale of 50 to 100 points based upon its appearance, colour, aroma and 'bouquet', flavour, finish and potential or actual global acclaim.
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