Top 10 Spanish wine sites

I recently saw an article listing the world's highest traffic wine web sites. The data was based on the Alexa traffic management site and was a snapshot of traffic on Sept. 9, 2005 (I have no idea why this date was picked). I was surprized to see one of my favorite Spanish sites, Verema, in third position, ahead of such heavyweights as Robert Parker and the Wine Spectator.

I got curious to learn more and on Feb. 23rd I went to Alexa to investigate. Sadly, in their rankings based on a broader time range, Verema was not third, after all. In the Alexa wine site traffic ranking, the leader was the Wine Spectator, followed by Robert Parker. There were no Spanish sites in the top 30.

I also looked at the Spanish category, which had a few surprises.

The top site by popularity was Torres; no surprise as this winery has probably made the strongest efforts in international marketing of any Spanish winery.

The number 2 site was the surprise: Celler Cal Costas , winery that I confess to never have heard of. I went to look for it in my trusty Peñín Guide and could not find any listing for this winery or their wines which are sold under the name of J. Miquel Jané. Looking for them in Google, I was able to see that this winery has been participating in promotions in Madrid as well as the London Wine Trade Fair, so they really do exist - and their web site has the traffic (according to Alexa) to back it up.

Third was Codorniu, again no surprise as they are one of the handfull of major winery groups in Spain. The site, which won wine trade awards when launched 2 years ago is being totally re-done and looks fantastic - the only draw back is that the English (and German) versions of the site are not yet available.

The rest of the top 10 list was surprising for an omission: no sign of Freixenet, the other Cava (and still wine) powerhouse, and the rather unusual list of wineries, a D.O. and 1 on-line wine shop:

Bodegas Robles

Bodegas Muga

Macià Batle

Can Nadal de la Boadella

Consell Regulador Denominació d'Origen Binissalem

Bodega Pirineos

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