In a quiet garage somewhere outside Rioja, a winemaker’s kids stomp grapes while their grandmother prepares lunch. It is slow, messy and highly manual, but this is the way Spaniards have been making Tempranillo, Grenache and Viura for centuries. It’s also precisely why Frank Dilernia fell in love with the region.
For over a decade, the Tapavino Group boss has been reshaping the way Aussies think about Spanish wine. Too often, he says, the drops of Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Priorat are brushed aside for their more famous French or Italian neighbours, but there is an earnestness to the Spanish producers that you just can’t fake.
“You’ve got the big houses,” he tells me. “They’ve been there a hundred years. When you meet them, you’re usually talking to the salespeople. But when you meet with the small winemakers; they’re the passionate ones. They’re the ones who have their children dumping the grapes, they’re the ones who put on a great long lunch. You taste all the wines and you meet the family. It’s a different experience.“
It sounds romantic, but it is this moment, Frank explains, where you start to understand the true beauty of wine; not in the tasting room but at the family table. And Dilernia would know.
Family Ties
Long before Tapavino became one of Sydney’s most beloved Spanish restaurants, wine importing was already a part of the family story. In the 1970s, Dilernia’s uncle was among the first people to bring authentic Spanish wine to Australia, helping to stoke the coals of Sydney’s burgeoning Spanish Quarter. What started with Capitan Torres grew into a thriving community hub, where a journey up the Liverpool Street venue’s rickety stairs and onto the heaving second floor dining room was a rite of passage for the culinary curious.
Over time, however, that world slowly faded. Many restauranteurs retired, others returned to Spain and by the turn of the millennium, the Spanish Quarter that once defined the neighbourhood gradually disappeared.
“Unfortunately that area changed a lot,“ Dilernia tells me. “The next generation didn’t want to get into restaurants, so a lot of the people who moved over here in the ’60s and ’70s retired and moved back to Spain. So, it sort of fell apart a bit.“
Growing up against the culinary backdrop of Don Quixote, Capitan Torres and the now-infamous Spanish Club, Dilernia’s ties to Spanish cuisine are strong. Starting Tapavino in 2012 felt more like picking up a loose thread that had been left hanging rather than a full-scale evolution. A year later, that thread turned into Barrica Wines.
”I just saw a market that was there for the taking,“ Dilernia tells me. “Spain, like France and Italy, has a massive wine industry; there’s something like 150 different varietals and most importers at the time were only servicing select regions. There is a whole world of natural wines and there are so many different parts of Spain that are growing great wines. That’s what we focused on.“
Originally built to supply Tapavino’s cellar, the wine importing business quickly grew into something far bigger. Dilernia began travelling across Spain searching for producers who weren’t already on Australian lists, targeting small vineyards, natural winemakers and lesser-known regions producing wines with distinct personalities.
At its peak, Barrica was importing close to 500 wines and distributing across Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland. Things were travelling smoothly, but it all came to a grinding halt in 2020 when the COVID pandemic shuttered restaurants across the country. It was brutal timing.
Venues shut overnight, even as shipments already on the water kept coming. As Dilernia explains, it was a massive inventory issue, particularly with natural wines, many of which are less stable than heavily processed bottles. Without restaurant turnover, these stunning drops simply sat idle in the storeroom.
“It really put us on the back foot,” Dilernia says.
Barrica survived, emerging from the other side with a new perspective and a much more streamlined approach. The portfolio shrank to around 200 wines, with the focus shifting away from sheer volume toward a tighter, more curated selection.
While that might sound negative, it’s been an important reset. If anything, the experience has reinforced Dilernia’s original philosophy. The Tapavino Group boss explains that wine is something that only really makes sense when you see where it comes from.
Translating Spanish Wine
Every year, Dilernia travels back to Spain to meet with the makers, often bringing members of his team along for the ride. As he explains, these first-hand experiences not only afford a rare opportunity to taste new vintages, it also gives his team of sommeliers and chefs greater context around the food and culture of the region. Too often, sommeliers are focused on bigger houses, bypassing the real quality of the independents.
“You need to combine the food and the wine together. I just don’t think you can separate just wine as a beverage,“ he tells me. “When you go to these regions, you ned to ask yourself: ‘What are they serving the food with? What’s different to how they serve the wine with the style of food compared to the way we do it?“
In a way, it’s a bit like wine translation. If someone orders a Riesling, Dilneria might guide them toward Albariño, whereas a Sauvignon Blanc drinker might get a kick out of a Verdejo. The hardest part is encouraging Aussie wine lovers to be a bit more adventurous.
“Spain has some of the best chefs and restaurants in the world. Why wouldn’t they have some of the best wine in the world as well?“
“When people drink wine in Europe especially, they drink from the region,“ Dilernia explains. “People will drink Burgundies or they drink a Tuscan or a Rioja wine, where in Australia they order a varietal. It’s still a case of catering to what the customer wants, but it’s also selling the story of Spanish wine and having the confidence to push them in a different direction.“
Beyond individual varietals, Dilernia says the real secret to Spanish wine lies in looking past the varietals and focusing instead on the region. Rioja and Ribera del Duero undoubtedly dominate international shelves, but many of Spain’s most interesting wines come from smaller producers and lesser-known areas. Here, Dilernia explains, experimentation and tradition often collide.
“Tempranillo, Spain’s most famous grape is grown all over the country, but its regional base can dictate how light and heavy it is,“ Dilernia says.
“If someone is after a Barossa Shiraz, you already know that they want something quite full bodied. So I’ll look tothe middle of Spain to the couple of really warm climate regions. At the same time, if someone asks for a Sauvignon Blanc, there’s a varietal in Spain called Verdejo, which drinks exactly like that. You have to know the regions to know specifically what to pair certain varietals with.“
Different Directions
For Dilernia, whose Tapavino Group now operates three restaurants and whose Barrica Wines has grown into the largest importer and distributor of Spanish beverages in the country, moving in different directions has become part of the story. After shifting priorities during COVID, the restaurant group is once again focusing on the subtle art of small sharing.
After years of distancing and QR codes, Aussies are gravitating back towards a slower, more communal way of dining. For restaurateurs like Frank Dilernia, it’s a familiar format. Tapas has always been less about the food itself and more about the experience around it. Having the right wine is just part of the process.
Perhaps that’s why the long lunches and garage visits in Rioja are so important; because when Dilernia and his team bring a bottle to your table, they know exactly how the wine should be shared.
