Spanish wine regions

The mainstream quality wine regions in Spain are referred to as denominaciones de origen protegidas (DOP) (similar to the French Appellations) and the wine they produce is regulated for quality according to specific laws, and in compliance with European Commission Regulation (CE) 753/2002.

The wine region classification in Spain takes a quite complex hierarchical form in which the denominación de origen protegida is a mainstream grading, equivalent to the French AOC and the Italian DOC.

As of 2019, Spain has 138 identifiable wine regions under some form of geographical classification (2 DOCa/DOQ, 68 DO, 7 VC, 19 VP, and 42 VT).

The Spanish DO is actually a subset of the EU-sponsored QWPSR (Quality Wine Produced in Specific Regions) regulatory code (vino de calidad producido en región determinada (VCPRD) in Spanish) which Spain formally adopted in 1986, upon accession to the (then) EEC.

This is in contrast to Vinos de Pago, where the location criteria are very strict indeed, often centering on specific plots of land and admitting only those wines produced in their immediate vicinity.