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I suppose it's finally official. Spain is no longer trendy; it's mainstream.

It took tennis sensation Raphael Nadal, Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre and, more improbably, Woody Allen this summer to put the land of writers like Cervantes and galleries like Bilbao fully on the map for suburban North America.

Suddenly even populist movie critics such as Roger Ebert are drooling over the setting, not just the sexy stars, of Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona. "The city is magnificent," the famous thumb recently typed. Certainly the regional Catalan government, which partly, and controversially, funded Allen's hit movie, must be muy satisfecho with the investment.

Foodies everywhere, though, had for about 15 years known that Spain, and in particular the northeast region of Catalonia, of which Barcelona is the capital, is today's global hot spot for dining trends. By the early 1990s, surrealist chef Ferran Adria - Salvador Dali with a basting brush - had been making ripples across the ocean with his foams and seaweed-based gelatins, creating tromp l'oeil presentations like oyster froth and liquid ravioli.

Shrewd restaurateurs soon riffed on the Spanish new wave, deploying "tapas" - the Spanish term for bar food - as a euphemism for cutting back on portions while keeping prices the same, a development that in McDonald's parlance might be less-generously dubbed Shortchange-me!

Today in North America it's gotten hard to avoid foams and gelatins on expensive restaurant menus. And thanks now to Woody, can McFoams be far off?

Curiously, it has taken Spanish wine longer to make its modern splash. Perhaps it's because many producers have clung to old ways, crafting "tintos" (Spanish for red) that can taste like they've been sitting in mouldy old barrels and mingling with the Mediterranean air for too long. Which frankly, many have.

Most modern-minded wine consumers would call these wines anachronisms - Franco Tintos, if you will. But these old, woody wines can have their charm, depending on your perspective and taste buds.

They are time capsules of the era before refrigerated, stainless-steel fermentation tanks and polished, air-tight winemaking.

There are, of course, also many new-style producers crafting wines as youthful, fresh and seductive as Vicky and Cristina, yet still with some of the Old World charm and romance of a city like Barcelona.

You can find the entire spectrum in stores across the country, including in today's Vintages release in Ontario, which features 14 reds.

Not part of the release but available to lucky shoppers in British Columbia is the new-styled Valcanto Syrah 2005 from Bodegas Piqueras ($13.99, product No. 582494). This full-throttle, dark-hued red is smooth and packed with cherry and dark-skinned fruit flavours, spiked with toasty, roasted-coffee notes and a subtle tire-patch quality (heated, but not burned, rubber). I even get the slightest, attractive hint of sweaty salami - not the figurative kind, mind you, just the literal, cold-cuts-in-the-sun kind. Great value.

One of the best buys in today's Ontario release at premium Vintages boutiques is Juan Gil 2006 ($21.95, No. 0001677). Made with the fine mourvedre grape common to France's southern Rhone valley (a variety called monastrell in Spain), it's very rich (at 14.5-per-cent alcohol) and brimming with blackcurrant, licorice, herbs and spice. If you like Côtes-du-Rhône and Châteauneuf-du-Pape, you should like this wine.

In a more old-school style, and significantly older in vintage, is Conde de Valdemar Reserva 2001 ($22.95, No. 0947309). Not for all palates, this Rioja reveals its age with a prune-like core and, yes, it's "woody" in a manner of speaking, with a sort of church-pew quality likely coming from time spent lingering in old barrels, plus nice spice and tobacco notes.

A reliable and more widely available Rioja is Marques de Caceres Rioja 2004 ($21.99 in B.C., No. 345108). Medium full-bodied and with that same woody, church-pew quality, it delivers a hint of leather before resolving with a tight, astringent, red-meat-friendly finish.

From the same producer comes one of the best-value dry rosés available across the country this year, Marques de Caceres Rosado 2007 ($15.99 in B.C., $14.05 in Quebec; $12.55 in Ontario). Now sealed in a handy screwcap, it's coral pink and perfectly balanced, with strawberry-raspberry fruit and fresh acidity.

In a crowd-pleasingly super-ripe style, veering into raisin-land, is Finca Antigua Crianza 2004, release a few weeks ago in Ontario ($15.95, No. 981613). Full-bodied and slightly sweet, it shows a decent balance of dried fruit and uplifting spice.

Artazuri 2006 ($14.95 in Ontario, No. 0080812; $12.95 in Quebec, No. 10902841; $19.99 at private B.C. stores; $16.99 in Alberta) is lighter on its feet and brighter in flavour than most Spanish reds you may be familiar with. It has a juicy core of cherry and - oddly for a red - citrus, plus a dusting of herbs and crisp acidity. If you're looking for a crisp red to serve with fish and want something more obvious than Beaujolais, consider this modern, fresh, fitting, end-of-summer sipper.

And if you can splurge a little, consider the best Spanish red of the Vintages release, T orres Salmos Tinto 2005 ($32.95, No. 0060772).

From the trendy Priorat region just south of Barcelona, this full-bodied red from the pioneering modern producer Torres, which introduced stainless steel tanks in the 1960s, is a blend of grenache, syrah, carenagne and cabernet sauvignon aged in new French oak (code for "modern-styled").

Vina Vilano Crianza 2004 ($20.95, No. 0082180) shows an attractively rugged, Javier Bardem-type of edge.

A full-bodied tempranillo-based red from another fashionable wine region, Ribera del Duero, it's medium full-bodied, starting smooth and then resolving with some fine but slightly gritty tannins that should pair nicely with rare red meat. It would also be worth cellaring for three to five years.

Pick of the week

T orres Salmos Tinto 2005 ($32.95, No. 0060772). A blend of grenache, syrah, carenagne and cabernet sauvignon aged in new French oak (code for "modern-styled").