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The UK Sommelier Association hosted an interesting wine workshop at Farmers & Fletchers in the City last Wednesday, 8^th July 2026. The rather clunky title Celebrate the diversity with European Wines from Spain and Portugal was nonetheless apposite, as the wines indeed originated from ten far-flung points across the Iberian peninsula. They also managed to avoid foreign grape varieties almost completely (except that there was a Syrah component in one of the blends).

The tasting was conducted by Virgilio Gennaro. Virgilio is a WSET Wine Educator, but this title belies his enormous experience in hospitality and wine service over twenty-five years, not only training staff but also providing consultancy and creating drinks lists for multiple restaurants.

These were sommeliers’ wines. Retail prices ranged from a mere €4 for the white Rioja (a thriving corner of the wine world, sales nearly doubling in the last decade), to just €28 for the Vinha Mae from Lisboa – see the end for the full wine list. The Vinha Mae starts its manufacture in mechanical lagares, acquires its aforementioned glug of Syrah along the way, and is finished with twenty months in barriques. A classy, spicy and complex seven-year old bottle with many years of good drinking ahead of it, and no doubt even tastier with something from the grill or oven.

But for me the highlights of the event were the mono-varietal wines, showing well what the local grapes can do. The Aloers was 100% Xarel·lo, a grape that normally disappears into the Cava blending tank, but front of stage here and showing off green olives and fruits and a whiff of smoke. Vinha dos Amores, from the playfully named vineyard in the village of Santar, was nonetheless a serious wine from a serious grape, Encruzado. It’s difficult to make well but this was a success, showing the variety’s range of aromas and flavours and its full-bodied, resinous texture (move over retsina, this is the additive-free way to do it).

Among the reds, the Principio was 100% Moristel, Somontano’s gift to the world, all spiced cherries and plums, while the Martin Berdugo Reserve from Ribera del Duero was a nicely-oaked Tinto Fino (eighteen months in French and American wood) that hid its 15% alcohol from me, not an easy trick.

This was an enlightening tasting that achieved its aims via a flight of authentic Iberian wines and a fine presentation from Virgilio.

Thanks to Andrea Rinaldi at the UK Sommelier Association, Virgilio, OIVE, Wines of Portugal and the professional staff at Farmers & Fletchers in the City.

The wines, grapes and regions

Sparkling

Quinta do Poço do Lobo Bruto, Caves Sao Joao 2022 – Baga; Barraida €10

Mil-Lenni Reserva Brut Nature, Maria Rigol 2021 – Cava; Penedès €18

White

Teixadal de Casaio 2024 – a blend of Treixadura and Albariño; Ribeiro €9

Aloers, Celler Credo 2021– 100% Xarel·lo; Penedès €10

Marqués de Reinosa 2024 – Tempranillo Blanco; Rioja €4

Vinha dos Amores, Casa de Santar 2022 – Encruzado; Dão €26

Reds

Principio, Bodega Pirineos 2024 – Moristel, Somontano €7

Vinha Mãe, Quinta de Chocapalha 2019 – 40% Syrah, 35% Touriga Nacional, 25% Tinta Roriz; Lisboa €28

Martin Berdugo Reserve 2019 – Tinto Fino; Ribera del Duero €18

Sweet

Cayetano del Pino Cream Sherry – 75-80% Palomino Fino, 20-25% PX; Jerez €26