I was propping up the bar at José’s eponymous tapas bar in Bermondsey when before you can say Rozinante, the barman offered me two red wines to taste, a bobal and a mencia. Not rioja please note but two relatively obscure yet delicious Spanish reds each with their own distinctive personality. I couldn’t resist a glass of Gramona, a cava that’s so refreshing it almost single-handedly redefines Spanish sparkling wine.

Before that I’d been to Ibérica in Marylebone, a spacious modern tapas bar with an accent on Asturian cooking and there I’d enjoyed a peppery La Malkerida Bobal with a white bean stew with chorizo, morcilla and pancetta and a raspberryish Pasolasmonjas Garnacha, which chimed well with a variety of Asturian specialities.

Continuing the tapas bar crawl, I’d popped into Capote y Toros, Abel Lusa’s new place which sits cheek by jowl in Old Brompton Road with his great Spanish restaurant Cambio de Tercio and the more casual Tendido y Cero. I ran into Peter Dauthieu, a supplier of rare sherries, who gave me one of his single butt amontillados to try with olives and almonds.

Soon after I found myself wandering on tapas-driven autopilot into Copita, yet another new tapas bar in Soho. I failed to resist a second mouthwatering Lustau fino with the sensational crab tortilla and a spicy, robust Pacheco Monastrell from Jumilla with homemade butifarra, piquillo peppers and chickpeas.

Something is happening and I do know what it is: it’s called the tapas bar revolution. While tapas bars have been around since BDQ, before Don Quixote, the most encouraging aspect of their mushrooming is not simply that the range of our culinary experience of fresh, unpretentious Spanish food is expanding. It’s also revealing that beyond rioja, sweet sherry and cava, there’s good wine coming of Spain’s ears: albariño, verdejo, godello, mencia, bobal, graciano and cariñena to mention just a few.

This increasing variety in bars, hotels and restaurants isn’t yet reflected in the all-powerful off-trade where the average price of a bottle of Spanish wine is below the overall average at only £4.42. There are encouraging signs though with positive developments in Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and more recently, Sainsbury’s.

The wonderfully fresh and super-concentrated apple and pear 2010 Palacio de Fefiñanes Albariño, Rías Baixas, £15.99, Waitrose Wine Direct, is the best albariño I’ve ever tasted. Telmo Rodriguez’ 2006 Peña del Infierno, £23, Marks & Spencer, is a Tinta del Pais from Ribera whose rich red berry fruits is infused with spicy cherry fruit, while the 2010 Taste the Difference Navarra, £6.99, Sainsbury’s is a pleasingly modern style that’s full of raspberryish fruit tinged with cinnamon oak and a soft satiny sheen. Let’s hope it’s not wishful thinking to predict more of the same for 2012.

Something for the Weekend

Couch Potato

2010 Castillo La Paz Tempranillo/Syrah, La Mancha, Spain

This is a fragrant and succulently juicy strawberryish tempranillo-based Spain-meets-France blend with appealing undertones of vanilla spice and a juicy balancing succulence of fruitiness . Rather delicious. £5.19, cut from £6.99 , until 24 January, Waitrose.

Dinner Party

2007 Morrisons The Best Lussac Saint Emilion

There’s an appealing touch of spicy oak on the nose of this well-made juicy lightly spicy Merlot-based claret from J.F.Carille in Bordeaux, with an attractive degree of concentration of nicely rounded plum and cherry, spice-tinged fruit. £9.99, Morrisons.

Splash Out

2009 Rully 1er Cru La Pucelle

This is excellent white Burgundy from the virgin soils of the Côte Chalonnaise, a powerfully flavoured, full-bodied chardonnay whose opulent fruit concentration finishes with a nutty flourish in a fresh, bone dry framework of fruit. £15.99, Marks & Spencer.

Ends