XXI Top Wines from Spain Tasting Showroom, the best journey through Spanish wine for the sector

With the carpet still sticking to our shoes and the excitement of having completed a new edition of the Top Wines from Spain Tasting Showroom, it is time to review this 21st edition, which will remain engraved in our minds as the most important of all the events we have held.

2021 will be remembered by all of us who are part of Peñín as a great year, despite the hardships we have had to live through due to the virus that has spread like a stain around the world.

But let's take it one step at a time. As many of you can imagine, the weeks leading up to the Salon have been a hectic time, and the Peñín team, accustomed to dealing with these and many other international events, has, as always, withstood the pressure of the days leading up to a major professional meeting. With their telephones smoking, their professionals have been dealing with each of the smallest details so that everything would be ready on the day of the premiere. And then the day arrived, and in the stomach of each one of us there were butterflies, something similar to what happens to an artist before going on stage.

IFEMA's gigantic Hall 5 began to welcome the winemakers, and what at first was a simple convention space began to transform into something much more valuable, as it brought together under the same carpet a large number of the best producers, oenologists and viticulturists that Spain has produced to date.

This is how, under the same roof and over two days, professionals who together add up to thousands of harvests and an overwhelming knowledge and experience were brought together and made available to the visitor. With the doors still closed, there was one thing missing for everything to be complete: the visitors. With the tension still latent, the attendees arrived with all their strength and energy, and with them the delicious music that accompanies great moments began to play in our heads. Peñín was once again bringing together the main players in the sector in a space, a place for dialogue, for meeting and for the wine business, after an absence of almost two years!

The event was attended by Mr. Luis Planas, the Minister of Agriculture, Fishing and Food, who took the opportunity to chat with some of the producers present at the show.

Everyone who was meant to be there

The butterflies in the stomach disappeared and each member of this simple but efficient group of professionals diligently carried out their mission. Ifema's Hall 5 was filled with tannins, lees, aged wines, theories on the evolution of wine, retail prices, pallets, discoveries of new projects, meetings with old friends and professionals.

The stories of how it has been possible to survive the pandemic, the closures of the hotel and hospitality industry, of how these same hotel and restaurant owners knew how to get back on their feet and get back on their feet. The murmur of the wine became a shout and with it we saw with great emotion how, despite the circumstances, wine continues and its professionals continue unstoppable, vintage after vintage.

Under the same roof, wines of great quality, which at some point have dazzled the tasting team for various reasons, coexisted throughout these two days. Iconic wines, modern wines, lesser known wines or revolutionary wines, such as the nominees for Revelation wine in the latest edition of the Peñín Guide 2022, surprised many of the attendees.

Full house at the scheduled seminars and masterclasses

In a space isolated from the hustle and bustle of the conversations between winemakers, professionals and journalists, a series of seminars and masterclasses took place, which were completely full, with the silence and attention of all the attendees. Bizkaiko Txakolina, the appellation of origin that marked an important turning point in the conception of more gastronomic and complex txakolís, was able to demonstrate the great expressive capacity of its txakolís today.

For its part, Campo de Borja presented all the essence of Aragonese garnacha to the audience and reviewed the different terroirs that coexist within its production area, while Cava presented all the arguments of "The new era of excellence" of the appellation, through a tasting of some of its most iconic sparkling wines.

Tarsus took the opportunity to present the new changes that the winery has undergone in this latest stage and wanted to present its range of wines to the professionals, including its latest creations. For its part, the training project led by Ramón Bilbao and known as The Spanish Wine Academy presented its efforts to spread Spanish wine culture throughout half the world and offered the attendees an interesting tasting where different styles of Spanish wines and wine-producing areas were presented.

We also had the Ribeira Sacra, one of the appellations of origin that has grown most qualitatively in recent years, which presented the singularities of this small producer corner and the wines produced there. 

The Top Wines from Spain Tasting Showroom has also left us with record figures for this house with nearly 7,000 professionals, attendees from more than 17 countries around the world, 2,100 wines on display and 380 exhibiting wineries.

With the doors of this last edition closed, Peñín begins a new period of normality in which wine will return to the professionals, with the emotions that it always brings. The next event will take place on Tuesday 30 November at the Palacio Neptuno in Madrid with the wines with the best value for money in the Peñín Guide, the IX Best Buys Tasting Showroom, for which the registration process is already open. Wine continues on the move and Peñín with it.