Well, Jose, I might give you a piece of my mind, completely distorted by the fact that, well, I'm simply not Spanish (but not from any other major wine producing country, either). In olden days us Flemish wine-amateurs were completely taken-in by French wines. Not even German! Spanish whites? Uffff...negligeable. Except for those strange people who had a particular liking for Spain, not the vacationeers to the coastal regions, but people who developed an understanding and ..love.. for a more "cultural" concept of what Spain was, might have been, and isn't, in fact. From dubious, possibly including bulls, to rotundly brilliant. History. Lots of it. White wines? Well, some of us would, at times, drink a wine from Jerez, a Fino or Manzanilla. But those were "particular wines", not really what most people called "white wine". Some of us, sometimes, had a chance to taste white Rioja wines: old fashioned, oaky but ...remarkable wines. I remember a 1978 Murrieta I drank the last bottle of after 2000; the other 11 bottles were drunk much, much too early. I'm a steadfast supporter of the old viura grape; tonight I'm opening a bottle, in fact, and I'm shocked that the Rioja consejo would tend to, well, join-in in the encouragement of Chardonnay (¿do they?) But, by and large, there were no other Spanish white wines to be found, back in those virtual middle-ages, before Juan Carlos proved his excellence to his people and to Europeans in general. ¿Nowadays? Well, to be frank, the Spanish white wines in Belgium, I'm talking "non specialist supermarket market", are still limited to the odd, cheaper,(Rueda) Verdejo or "Marques de Cáceres" white (with very little character) or even anonymous Valdepeñas...plunk, in that case. In Belgium, Spain still is not considered a "white wine country". You will not, in a supermarket situation, run into Ribeiro, Albariño, the better Ruedas, Rioja Viuras are extinct and ...the other Spanish white wines I don't even know the existence of.
With red wines, the situation is far better: Belgians drink red. If it be any consolation to you, most Belgian supermarkets don't even carry ++good++ German Riesling, or even Alsacian: most is "plunk", big brands. Ah... ¡money! there's never enough of it.
P.S. Yes, I confirm: the Jose Maria. I invited my University of Salamanca professor "20th century Spanish History" (a 3-month course for foreign students of the Castilian languaje) to that restaurant's bar...to do my exam right there and then (since I only did the 2-week course, I was dispensed. But I wanted to do the exam, "soy orgulloso"), so I ordered two copitas! A year earlier, I'd gone there with my wife, where we also drank a good Ribero de Duero wine, "Pago de Carraovejas". I think the "dueño" is (part) owner of the pago.
Ah, Jose, I drank so much Spanish wine that I now have Spanish blood in my veins. ¡Enough añoranza!
Allow me to greet you, Sir.
Pablo
