Spain

Spain brings together Spanish specialties from the Cantabrian Sea to Ibiza

At nur Gutes, Spain stands for a small, carefully selected range. Bonito del Norte and anchovies come from the Basque Country, olive oil from Jaén, Granada and Tarragona, and Fleur de Sel from the salt pans in the south of Ibiza. To accompany these, there are Marcona almonds from La Mancha, Piquillo peppers from Extremadura, sherry vinegar from Jerez and Cava from the Penedès. Spanish specialties, each with its own place of origin on the label.

Spanish specialties at nur Gutes means supplies for a tapas evening—tins, jars, and bottles from artisan producers that we have been collecting in Nordhorn since 2002. Spanish delicacies such as line-caught white tuna, early-harvest Picual oil from Andalusia, and caper berries from Murcia stand here alongside salt, nuts, and chips. A Spanish evening begins with them, long before anyone thinks about the stove.

From the pintxo in San Sebastián to gazpacho in Andalusia

Spain eats late, for a long time, and loves small portions that wander across the table until no one knows who ordered what.

In the Basque Country, they are called pintxos and stand skewered on the counter in San Sebastián. In Andalusia, gazpacho made from tomatoes, cucumbers, and bread cools the summer, and Valencia cooks paella in a flat iron pan over an open fire. In Extremadura and Andalusia, black Iberian pigs roam under holm oaks, from whose acorns the jamón ibérico draws its aroma.

This is complemented by Pimentón de la Vera, smoked paprika from the north of Extremadura. It dries over oak wood for a week before being ground, giving every chorizo its color. A proverb says, con pan y vino se anda el camino—with bread and wine, you can walk the road. The Catalan response to this is pa amb tomàquet: bread with tomato, olive oil, and salt.

From Rioja to sherry, from Cava to gin

Spain drinks wine from almost every province, and the great names lie along rivers or by the sea.

Along the Ebro, Rioja made from Tempranillo matures in American oak, while the darker Ribera del Duero ages along the Duero. In Priorat, Garnacha grows on slate, and in Galicia, the Rías Baixas serve Albariño, the wine for mussels and crabs. Way down south lies Jerez, home to sherry—from dry Fino and salty Manzanilla from Sanlúcar to Pedro Ximénez, dark as raisins.

What ends up in the glass from Spain at our shop sparkles or burns. The Cava Hola from Barcelona Brands is produced in the Penedès using traditional bottle fermentation; the Brut matures on the lees for seventeen months, the Rosé for fourteen. Since 2014, Christopher Heirwegh and Christel Weemaes have tied their winemakers to long-term contracts instead of buying their own vineyards. The Rosé won gold at the 2021 Mundus Vini, and the label features Barcelona’s famous sidewalk tile design.

Distilling takes place in Vilanova i la Geltrú, south of Barcelona. The Giró family has run MG Destilerias there since 1835 and harvests the juniper for Le Tribute Gin by hand in Teruel. The sherry itself reaches us as vinegar. Capirete from Jerez de la Frontera draws Vinagre de Jerez from the region's wine and allows the Gran Capirete to mature as a Reserva.

Bonito from the Cantabrian Sea, oil from Jaén, salt from Ibiza

For us, Spanish delicacies primarily come in tins, bottles, and jars, and each one has a sender that you can find on the map.

Fish has been tinned at Olasagasti in the Basque Country since 1923, and the star is the Bonito del Norte—line-caught white tuna that passes by the coast in the summer. The Basque-style anchovies are the tin that finds its way into our packages most often.

Olive oil comes from Andalusia and Catalonia, and Nobleza del Sur presses the Centenarium in Castellar (Jaén) from centuries-old Picual trees. The robust DAY organic olive oil is harvested during the day, the mild NIGHT version at night. At O-Med in Ácula near Granada, Paula and Juande García press Picual and Arbequina on the day of the harvest. Azada in Tarragona infuses its Arbequina oils with lemon, garlic, or basil.

Salt is hand-harvested by Sal de Ibiza from the salt pans in the south of the island, and the Fleur de Sel is packaged in a turquoise ceramic pot. Finca la Rosala roasts Marcona almonds in small batches in La Mancha. In Extremadura, El Carrascal roasts Piquillo peppers over an open fire and peels them pod by pod. The caper berries from Murcia come from Alcaparras Asensio Sánchez, where Pedro Sánchez Pérez started working with capers around 1930.

A tapas evening from tin, jar, and bottle

A Spanish evening begins at the table, and the stove can stay cold as long as there is enough bread in the house.

Open the tins and set them out: the bonito in its oil, the anchovies on toasted bread with a drop of sherry vinegar, the piquillos with garlic and good oil. Next to them, Marcona almonds, Gordal olives with chili, and chips with Fleur de Sel—everyone digs in with their fingers. For an aperitif, enjoy the Chips de Madrid from Superbon alongside the salt chips from Ibiza.

The olive oil demands bread and tomato. Halve a ripe tomato and rub it over toasted bread, then add the oil, then the salt. The DAY oil from the day's harvest brings a grassy sharpness, while the NIGHT oil from the nocturnal harvest remains soft and mild. In summer, the evening begins with gazpacho from Anko in the Ribera de Navarra, served cold from the fridge.

Leftovers keep well, as bonito and anchovies continue to mature in the tin. The oil stays cool and dark in the cupboard, and the almonds in their jar wait patiently for the next evening.

Families who know their groves by name

Behind our Spanish specialties are families who know their trees and their boats by name—some for centuries, others for a decade.

In Castellar, in the province of Jaén, Miguel Sánchez Sagra acquired the Los Añadios grove in 1640. Twelve generations later, the Peñuelas-Sagra family manages over 300 hectares there and presses the oil in their own mill. The Centenarium from the oldest trees on the Finca Vista Alegre won gold in New York in 2022 and 2023.

In Ácula near Granada, Juan de Dios García bought an oil mill in 2004. The second generation, Paula and Juande García, runs it today as a young company that harvests early in October and presses the olives on the same day. Stiftung Warentest ranked their Picual at the top of its test in 2016, and the groves belong to Olivares Vivos, a program for olive cultivation that promotes biodiversity.

In Calzada de Calatrava in La Mancha, Pedro Ciudad Imedio grows Kerman pistachios. He roasts almonds and nuts slowly, in small batches and at temperatures below 145 degrees; the pinkish-red soil of the old family field gave Finca la Rosala its name.

From summer evening to New Year's bottle

In summer, Spain belongs on the balcony, with gazpacho, bonito, and a cold bottle of Cava. In autumn comes the first oil of the harvest, which Nobleza del Sur calls NOVO—green and limited—and on New Year's Eve, the cork pops from the Penedès.

Spanish specialties travel well as gifts, whether as a set with four small bottles of oil from Jaén, as Fleur de Sel in a ceramic pot, or as a tin of bonito with a bottle of Cava on the side. You can find ready-made gift ideas in our gifts section, from small gestures to full baskets.

Continue exploring our regions; both neighbors are close by. To the west lies Portugal, which has made the sardine a national icon. North of the Pyrenees lies France, where the Basque Country continues, with Piment d'Espelette instead of Pimentón. The selection here is manageable, but every tin within it has seen the sun.