According to pundits, Spain has been a "sleeping giant" for so long that, at times, it seemed to have been waiting for a handsome prince to come and release it from its slumber. But things are changing in the country—at last. Spain's wines are now making the most of their grape characteristics and are being made in modern, well-equipped wineries, with marketing departments to back them up—and it is the latter which will be the key to success.

To understand how far Spain has come, we must look at the history of the wine industry. There have been three revolutions in the past three decades, with a fourth in progress, revolving around: (1) control and technology, (2) new vineyard techniques, (3) better barrels and marketing know-how and (4) wine tourism. All of these revolutions were initiated as new generations of family-owned companies took over, turning their backs on the more traditional ways of doing things.

Fast Facts: Spain's Wine Regions • America is the fourth largest customer for Sherry, with modest growth of around 6 percent since 1999—Cream, Amontillado and Medium are still the most popular. • The Northwest region of Rías Baixas has seen excellent growth (43 percent from 2001 to 2003), perhaps due to high praise (and high scores) from Robert M. Parker Jr., America is the DO's biggest export market. • Provisional figures from Calatayud for 2004 suggest that exports to the U.S. have almost doubled to around 6,000 hl. • Ribera del Duero held a wine event in New York in 2004 for wineries who had an American importer, and 62 bodegas (that's one-third of the members of the DO) were eligible. It was a great success by all accounts, and new business was started. • Utiel-Requena, in the Comunidad de València, has 12 bodegas exporting to the U.S., mainly in the $7-$10 category that is the key to success in the U.S. market. • Priorat counts America as its biggest export customer, with 20 percent of exports in 2003, totaling about €5 million ($6.5 million)—nearly all expensive, high-end wines for the enthusiast market, but they are, of course, some of the world's greatest wines. • Valdepeñas has eight bodegas exporting to the U.S. but increased quite substantially in 2004, with 1,753 hl from January to October, compared with 1,182 for the whole of 2003. • Somontano in the Aragonés Pyrenees has three bodegas exporting: Pirineos, Viñas del Vero and Enate, which sells 8 percent of its entire production in the U.S. • Basque-based Getariako Txakolina (Chacolí de Getaria), though very small, has three bodegas exporting to the U.S. (236 hl in 2003). • The small Galego area of Ribeira Sacra dipped its toe into the market in 2003 (22 hl), but three adegas are exporting, including the excellent Adegas Moure (one of the most beautiful vineyards in Spain). • Even tiny Arabako Txakolina (Chacolí de Álava), with only three bodegas, one of which accounts for 98 percent of all production and which only became a DO in 2002, is sharpening its spurs. (1 hl = 26.4 gallons)

In the 1970s the revolution was in the bodega, or winery. Stainless steel was the must-have winemaking kit, basket presses and concrete tanks were "so last century," by California's Frank Gehry at Marqués de Riscal in Elciego, Rioja. It's due for completion at the end of 2005/beginning of 2006 and will include all of the above features, plus a wine spa.

Spain Responds

In the 1990s we started to see much simpler labels from Spain: wines named more simply, made with less oak and more emphasis on the fruit components of the grape. Tempranillo has proved itself a world-class grape, of course, but the Garnacha and the Cariñena (both believed to have Aragonés origins) are the surprises of this period. When young, they both turn out workmanlike wines of no great distinction.

However, when a group of young experimenters bought up ancient plantations of these varieties in the rocky outcrops of the Priorat DOQ (Denominació d'origen qualificada), the pitifully small yields resulted in wine of the utmost perfume, concentration and complexity.

In the past, vines had been replanted once their maximum yields started to fall at 40-plus years old, in complete ignorance of the fact that the juice they were producing would make wine of far higher value in the long term—L'Ermita from Álvaro Palacios in Gratallops (100-year-old vines) fetches e425 ($564) a bottle at www.Lavinia.es, Spain's biggest online wine retailer. In Aragón (DOs Calatayud, Cariñena and Campo de Borja) there were also old plantations of these varieties, but on land that belonged to the members of creaking, dinosaur cooperatives. When they realized what resources they had, they quickly banded together, turned themselves into corporations with the former members as shareholders and are now turning out wines of astonishingly high quality at very low prices.

In the 2000s the marketing revolution has matured, and any serious winery will have a department looking after trade visitors, keeping the press informed and sending out samples to wine writers. So it's been a long haul, but the "sleeping giant" has finally woken up and is starting to flex its muscles.

Targeting the U.S.

There are two markets for wine in the United States: (1) collectors and enthusiasts who seek out the finest and rarest wines and don't ask the price, and (2) everybody else.

The collectors are already well catered to. For example, Javier Zaccagnini of Bodegas Aalto in Ribera del Duero says he could have sold the entire production of his most recent vintage to his U.S. customers; and although the unit price is high, the quantity is still relatively small.

If Spain is to gain a foothold in the mass market, it's got to appeal to people who aren't particularly interested in the technicalities of wine: people who are looking for something that tastes good, goes well with food and, perhaps crucially, at the right price—certainly under $10 a bottle and probably less. Australian wines start at around $6.99, and it's this price bracket that will be the key to the right kind of penetration.

So how are they doing? Exports to the U.S. have risen steadily over the last few years (see Table 1), with solid growth of more than 16 percent although this is from a low base and the U.S. still only accounts for about 5 percent of Spain's exports (although it still ranks fourth, see Table 2). This is, of course, how Australia got started.

For comparison, let