Ribera del Duero. Tempranillo on a high, cold plateau.

From Vega Sicilia to world fame

Wine has been made here for more than 2,000 years, and from the 10th century Benedictine monks spread vine growing. Vega Sicilia planted its first vines in the 1860s, mostly Tempranillo plus Bordeaux varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec, and for a century it was an island in an unknown region. Ribera del Duero only became a DO in 1982. Wider fame followed in the late 1980s, when critic Robert Parker compared Alejandro Fernández's Tinto Pesquera to Pétrus.

Host Sarah Heller MW notes that the region's top wines are often more nuanced and subtle than their blockbuster reputation suggests.

Altitude and an extreme continental climate

The vineyards flank the Duero River in north central Spain, on limestone plateaus between roughly 700 and 1,000 meters. Trapped between mountains, the region has an extreme continental climate with short, hot summers and freezing winters. Cool nights help the grapes keep freshness and acidity and extend the ripening season, so grapes picked as late as the end of October can have deep color and flavor.

Tempranillo is known locally as Tinto Fino or Tinta del País. Most vines are grown as bush vines, or goblets, which shade the bunches. In this climate the grape develops relatively thick skins, giving deep-colored wines with firm tannins and dark fruit that can age for years.

Ribera versus Rioja

Fredrik Lindfors, Best Sommelier of the Nordics 2017, explains the difference with a side-by-side tasting. Rioja's milder climate tends to give thinner-skinned grapes and red-fruited, spicier wines, traditionally aged longer, often with the sweet coconut spice of American oak. Ribera's extreme day and night temperature shifts produce darker fruit such as blackberry and cassis, and the wines are typically aged for shorter periods, mostly in French oak, with a more savory spice. A roast leg of lamb shows how well that structure works with red meat.

Rules, provinces and styles

Red wines must contain at least 75% Tempranillo, though many classic wines are 100%. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec may be added, and up to 5% of Albillo and Garnacha. Ageing terms follow Rioja: Crianza at least two years with 12 months in oak, Reserva three years with one in oak, and Gran Reserva five years with two in oak. Some producers prefer the freer Cosecha label.

There are no official subzones, but the plateau falls from east to west across four provinces. Soria is the highest and coolest, with some pre-phylloxera vines. Burgos holds most of the vineyards, with La Horra among its best villages. Valladolid, home to the so-called Golden Mile, is warmer and makes more powerful wines.

Two lesser-known styles stand out. Clarete is a traditional pale red made by fermenting red and white grapes together, and the hosts taste one from Torremilanos. Since 2019 the DO also allows white wines from at least 75% Albillo Mayor.

The diurnal shift experiment and blind tastings

What exactly is a diurnal shift, and why does it matter? In a memorable experiment, Sarah and Fredrik play a hot-climate grape and a cool-climate grape, plunging their hands into bowls of hot and icy water to show how warm days build sugar and flesh while cold nights preserve acidity.

Each host then tastes a wine blind, one white and one red, and works out what it is from texture, fruit and structure. The episode ends with a slow-cooked beef tagine with ras el hanout, saffron and prunes. See how it changes the wine in the glass.