Rioja, it seems, is on a bit of a roll. After a sketchy run in the late noughties, where medal counts varied wildly from one year to the next, this is the third consecutive SWA where the region has delivered a hatful of Gold-Listed wines. It’s done it, moreover, in a wide variety of styles and across the price points – proof of a category in the rudest of health.

From reds at a smidge over house wine price to superlative single-vineyard expressions; from cheery sin-crianzas to more intellectual, yet still approachable reservas, it had the lot. This year we even had two good (and different) white Golds, and across the flights the feedback was almost universally positive.

The region’s success could be put down to one word: drinkability. Indeed, the Traditional versus Modern debate was less important this year than whether a wine had easy-going charm, in whatever style the winery chose to make it. Whether bright, red and modern or spicy, browner and more leathery, the good wines all allowed some of Tempranillo’s natural sweetness to come through.

Often our tasters felt that the simplest (cheapest) wines did this the best, and that once wineries tried to turn up the ambition they lost control of the softness that makes the wines so great in the first place.

Wines that were still a little young or tight tended not to be rewarded. This, very definitely, is an appellation whose wines – whether joven or reserva – need to be drinking NOW! Not that this necessarily means ‘simple’ – as wines like the poetically beautiful Valenciso proved.

‘You need something typical, definitely juicy and approachable, with cherry and vanilla oak, an appealing and consistent wine,’ explained The Arts Club’s Athila Roos. ‘There is room for different styles, but you have to get this right first.’