Results Are In: Best Spanish Cheeses and Wine

Spain has a rich gastronomical heritage and has long been producing exceptional cheese and wine, despite not receiving the same global recognition for its excellent food and drink compared to other countries such as Italy and France.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has announced the winners of their Spanish food awards for the best wines, cheeses and spirits for 2023 in our country. The judges for the awards include a panel of expert tasters who blind-taste the products to choose the winners to help promote produce from Spain.

The category for the Best Spirit is new for these annual food awards, and 1866, Brandy de Jerez Solera Gran Reserva took first prize.

The best wines in Spain were chosen by prestigious members of the wine sector, and the best red wine goes to Gaudium 2018, bt Unión Vitivinícola, from Cenicero in La Rioja. The best white wine goes to Telleira Godello 2022 by Bodegas Campante, from Toén in Ourense. Salvueros Rosado 2022 took home the prize for Rosé wines, and is produced by Bodegas Hijos de Marcos Gómez, from Mucientes in Valladolid.

Sant Martí Sarroca (Barcelona) took first place for sparkling wines with Gran Reserva Brut Nature 2016, while Noé PX by González Byass, from Jerez de la Frontera, won the best liquor category.

Spain has produced many world-renowned, award-winning cheeses and this year, after a blind tasting process carried out at the  Santander Agrifood Arbitration Laboratory, ‘Don Apolonio Añejo Reserva’ cheese by Quesos Don Apolonio, from Malagón in Ciudad Real won for the best sheep’s milk cheese.

The best cow’s milk cheese was Pazo de Anzuxao from Lácteos Anzuxao in Lalín (Pontevedra). The best goat’s milk cheese was awarded to Maxorata, from Grupo Ganaderos de Fuerteventura, in Puerto del Rosario (Las Palmas). Mixed Cheese category went to Los Cameros by Lácteos Martínez, from La Rioja. And finally, Savel by Airas Moniz, from Chantada (Lugo) won first prize for blue cheeses.

In 2023, the TasteAtlas Awards announced that Spain came third in the category of Best Cuisines in the World, chosen from 95 countries. The first and second spots went to Italian and Greek cuisines, respectively. Spain hopes to continue to promote their world-class products through award ceremonies to firmly establish the country on the gastronomical map.