Spain's flagging wine industry was reborn in the 1990's with investment from the EU gave new wine regions an opportunity to launch themselves onto the domestic and international stage.

Once dominated by Rioja and Jerez, Spain is now a microcosm of regions and wines. With its own native grape varieties and customs, Spain offers new, interesting and sometimes brilliant wines for all:-

Spain introduced its own Denominación de Origen (DO) system in 1926. Today it has a number of different quality standards including

Denominación de Origen Calificada (DOCa) This category for the top regions started in 1991 when Rioja was granted DOCa. In 2001 Priorat also gained DOCa status.

Denominación de Origen (DO) is similar to Frances AC's and was started in 1926. Nowadays over 60 DO exist with local government and Consejo setting limits on production and varieties used.

Denominación de Origen de Pago (DO de Pago) introduced in 1996 these extremely strict geographical criteria, centering on individual single-estates with an international reputation.

Vino de la Tierra (VdlT) Similar to the French Vin de Pays. These are wines from a particular region with distinctive character, but do not hold the DO standard.

Vino Comarcal (VC) wines from a single vintage but not necessarily from a single region. The quality of these wines is usually lower than VdlT

Vino de Mesa (VdM) This is equivalent to France's Vin de table and has wines with no formal classification.