Spanish wines--tasting order?

[Jenise]

I'm organizing a Spanish wine tasting tonight and have no idea what participants will bring, but presuming that most of the wine will be Rioja, Priorat and Ribera del Duoro, which of the other two would logically follow Rioja? Or should we order the wines according to age?

hard to answer without individual wines, but if question is "which of the other two would logically follow Rioja?" my logic would say RdD, as the wines are usually mostly Tempranillo/Tinto Fino (a close relative I think, more a clone than separate grape). While most Priorats I run across are Garnacha based, with some Carignan and maybe some Cab, Syrah, etc. Of course, there's Grenache in Rioja, but I think of Temp as the dominant grape.

[Jenise]

hard to answer without individual wines

I know, which is why I'm at such a loss. I would tend to put anything especially old and fragile up front and work old to young, but if they're mostly young then the regional differences will be a stronger play. I was hoping to instruct a server to order them so that I stay blind.

I concur with Dale’s suggestion, especially given his logical take from the point-of-view of the grape varietals. I’d probably still go with the Rioja first, but given past experiences with a few young Priorat and RdD, depending on the producer, it may as well be a toss-up as to which comes next.

[Jenise]

Ramon and Dale, thanks for your input. We went: Rioja, RdD, Priorat, Other. I've just posted the notes.