El que con vino cena,
con agua desayuna.
(He who dines with wine, breakfasts with water.)
Forty years ago, Spanish wine was nowhere on the
global map. Now, it has almost legendary status among connoisseurs the wine world.
Ever since Spain joined the E.U.in 1985 there has been a revolution in Spanish Wine.
At one time, if you asked someone what their favorite
Spanish wine was, you would likely get “Sangria” as an answer. Here are a few bits of “cocktail fodder” (or
in this case, “tapas fodder”) to use as you like. Join us at our next tasting for more!
Spanish wine was the Romans' favorite drink
They’ve
been making wine in Spain since the first century AD. The Roman historian Pliny
the Elder raved about wines made from the area known today as Alella, near
Barcelona. Another Roman, Ovid, noted the most popular wine in Rome (from Spain
of course) known as Saguntum, was only good for getting your mistress drunk.
The Catalan regional government found remnants of an ancient Roman wine press and
has developed an interactive museum tour to see how wine was made during this
time.
Spain is a record breaking exporter
Spain is the top
exporter of wine in the world. In 2017,
Spain exported over 60 million gallons with the majority of it going to France.
Not only is Spain a top exporter, but in 2017 it was the third largest producer
of wine, behind France and Italy with one billion gallons produced. While
everyone thinks of Rioja when they think of Spanish wine, the top area for
volume is actually Castille/La Mancha near the capital of Madrid.
Spanish wine has different
classifications.
Spain has 78
sub-regions of wine across 17 provinces of the country, including the Balearic
Islands and the Canary Islands. They are classified as Denominación de Origen
(DO) and Denominación de Origen Calificada (DOC). Both denote wineries meeting stringent
requirements to produce wine, with the DOC designation being the highest
quality. Currently only two regions have met DOC requirement in Spain, Rioja
and Priorat. In Catalonia, it’s referred to as DOQ Priorat due to the Catalan
language spelling and pronunciation.
There are over 400
grape varieties in Spain!
Most of the production
comes from Tempranillo, Garnacha, Monastrell, Albariño, Palomino, Airen,
Macabeo, Parellada, and Xarel-lo. The most widely planted is Airen, a white
wine grape which is valued for a variety of reasons including its hardiness.
Second is Tempranillo, the popular grape of Rioja, followed closely by Garnacha
which is planted throughout Spain but mostly known internationally due to the
Catalan region of Priorat.
Cava isn't only from Catalonia
Everyone
knows that Cava is the Spanish equivalent of sparkling wine, which uses a
similar method of production as Champagne. Although 95% of Cava production
comes from Catalonia where it originated in the late 19th century at Codorniu Winery in Sant Sadurni d’Anoia,
it can also be produced in Aragon, Castile and Leon, Valencia, Extremadura,
Navarra, Basque Country and Rioja. It is regulated by DO Cava, which determines
the rules and regulations of the production of Cava.
Spanish wine was Picasso's inspiration.
Pablo Picasso’s
inspiration for the cubism movement came from his time in DO Terra Alta town of
Horta de Sant Joan, south of Barcelona and near the Catalan border town of
Tortosa. Picasso spent time there while he was splitting his time between
Barcelona and Paris beginning in 1901. In fact, in many of Picasso’s paintings
you can see the elements of the people from the towns, and also the vineyards
where he sometimes slept in at night. Wine is also directly in many of his
works, including Bottle and Wine Glass on
a Table from 1912.
La Rioja has been
making wines for almost a thousand years.
The first mention of
the name Rioja in official documents
as a wine producing region dates back to 1092, while during the same time, King
Garcia Sanchez I donated lands to the
monastery of San Millan de la Cogolla, which included the vineyards. Monks and
monasteries played an important role in wine production all across Spain after
lands were reconquered from the Moors starting at that time, and leading up to
1834 when legislations saw monastery lands confiscated for the benefit of the
citizens of Spain.
The Franco years were
dark days for Spanish wine.
The Franco
dictatorship was a dark time for wine production, as wine was not allowed to be
exported. Franco believed that wine should only be used for church sacraments
and not much else. Still, when it was discovered that President Eisenhower was
a fan of sparkling wines, Franco commissioned Perelada to produce a special cava for his visit to Spain in
December of 1959. Some of the original bottles from the commission are on
display at the winery. Salvador Dali was also a fan of Perelada cava, offering it to his guests who came to visit.
Spain is the number
one producer of organic wine in the world.
Over 197,000 acres of
land is specifically registered and documented as organic. Even one of Spain’s
largest wine producers, Torres, has
one third of their vineyards as organic. This has been a dramatic rise, as
organic wineries were rare in Spain up until the 1990s. However, due to traditional
winemaking techniques, many winemakers throughout Spain have refused to use
chemicals or pesticides in wine production since the 1950s.
The Only Sherry is
Spanish Sherry.
Sherry is originally from the Jerez region of
southern Spain. In fact, other areas around the world aren’t allowed to use the
word Sherry as the region has a trademark on the brand, similar to the French
region of Champagne. Sherry production dates back to the 8th century, and it
may have been around for much longer. It was first exported in the 12th century
and became popular in England, and other areas began to adopt the methods to
make their own variation of Sherry. In the 16th century Sherry was regarded as
the finest wine available in Europe.
