Spanish Wine
For decades now, Spanish wines have been associated with the word inexpensive and were not always delicious. Outside of the wines from Rioja, many Spanish wines were uneven in quality and even when you found a good one, a second bottle of the same wine may not nearly be as good as the first.
Odd, since Spain has been cultivating wine since somewhere between 3000 and 4000 B.C. It is by far one of the oldest wine regions in Europe, if not the world, and the influences of the Spanish wine industry can be felt far and wide, thanks to the Spanish wanderlust that took explorers halfway around the globe.
If you’re a bit of an explorer yourself, you’ll find some great Spanish wines today, thanks to an intensive modernization program that was long overdue. While it was romantic to think that Spanish winemakers could continue to keep the quality up with age-old production techniques, and some do mind you, for the most part the industry just couldn’t keep up with the rest of the world.
The Spanish even had a term for this practice, describing it as “elaborar”, which means to elaborate. The goal was to nurture the grapes and the wine instead of produce it. While tradition is a great thing, especially in wine making, this resulted in some spectacular wines and some not so delightful ones as well.
Today, the Spanish have adopted the same winemaking techniques as the rest of the world and the temperature controlled stainless steel fermentation tanks have changed the entire wine industry. While the fermentation process is state-of-the-art, aging is still done in oak, American oak specifically, though French oak is increasingly used to bring even more control over the character of the wine.
This is a good thing, indeed, since Spain has more than 600 different grape varieties, even though the primary focus is on just 20. Tempranillo, Airen, Garnacha are all favorites of Spanish winemakers.
The oldest growing region in Spain is La Rioja, which has produced wines since the times of the Romans. Located in a deep valley between the Sierra de la Demanda and Cantabria mountain ranges, the region is fed by seven different rivers, providing plenty of rich soil and irrigation. The soils here are perfect for red and white grapes, including Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuello, Viura, Malvasia, Garnacha Blanca and Graciano. Red wines are emphasized in La Rioja, accounting for 85% of all the wine produced there.
Ribera del Duero is slowing challenging La Rioja for dominance, especially in Tempranillo, which is known as Tinto Fino there. One of its major producers, Vega Sicilia, ages its wines for seven years and doesn’t release them to market until a minimum of 10 years.
That is reason enough to try Spanish wines, where old meets new in wonderful and often unexpected ways.