Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Priorat all make much of their aristocratic roots. Clinton Cawood joins a team of tannin-hardened sommeliers to put their top wines to the test and find out which region has the strongest claim to the Spanish throne

While the kick-out rate was high, the wines left at the end served as a blunt reminder to sub-standard also-rans of just how good the pink stuff can be

Over 1,500 wines can be boiled down to this: the hallowed Sommelier Wine Awards Gold List for 2011...

Some great-value wines on the Gold List together with a few top-end ones, too. With more controlled oak use, in future years this is a category that could really fly

The Sommelier Wine Awards doesn’t give out trophies per category because we’re worried that tasters will feel under pressure to dispense extra awards in categories where they may not believe the wines are up to it. Instead, in keeping with the whole ethos of the competition, we leave the judgement up to the sommeliers…

With screwcaps to the fore, the quality of the whites (particularly) and the reds here was amazing for the price. Rosé was another matter entirely

In the past, a By The Glass award has gone to wines that match specific dishes – the theory being that they could be served by the glass as ready matches with a meal.

A somewhat muted performance after the high medal count of last year, with the much-vaunted Galicia, in particular, something of a disappointment in 2011

Some great wines and amazing prices. In fact, it was only the category’s persistent (and troubling) lack of fashionability that prevented more Golds being awarded

A broad selection of decent, well-made wines, but far fewer for our tasters to get really excited about

Food Match Awards

From lusciously sweet to bone dry, from indigenous to international varietals and from whites through rosés to reds, the region of Navarra has the lot. Richard Woodard follows a group of Hotel du Vin sommeliers as they try to make sense of it all

A brief lesson in Spain's lesser-known wine growing regions

Pago wines are making a big noise in Spain, and commanding big prices. But can they deliver where it matters – in the glass? Imbibe gathered together a panel of tasters, and a line-up of some of the country’s best-known estate wines to find out

Not quite so staggering as last year, with some tasters bemoaning a lack of ‘Spanishness’, but still some excellent wines at competitive prices