To look at the Spanish approach to wine-making is to at once gaze back into the country’s past and across their cultural peculiarity. Throughout La Rioja you can still find the vessels that Romans used for fermentation cut into rock. Across Castile-Léon the signs of Franco‘s reign still mark the landscape, fields of corn standing where rows of vines once were. Unlike the rest of the world, a vintage remains within the Bodegas until itis ready to drink rather than ready to sell. They make wine for food as much as for drinking. In Logrono each wine store serves its own distinctive wine and its own homemade tapa with equal passion. Below are our favourites from across the country.
Catalonia – The Home of Fajió’s Cool Cellar
Along the Mediterranean Coast the grapes for Spain’s sparkling grow. Taken by Josep Raventós Fatjó from Champagne in 1872, he named that bottle-fermented wine after the place where he stored it – Cava or cool cellar. In many ways Catalonia has been the pioneering site for the Spanish wine industry. The region was the first to produce a single-varietal Cabernet. The two wines from Miguel Torres are good examples of this creativity. The Salmos is his take on the classic blend of the Côtes du Rhône. And the Vina Esmeralda is a playful mix of Muscatel and Gewürztraminer.
Castile-Léon – Out amongst Franco’s Cornfields
While La Rioja might be firmly cast in the minds of newcomers to Spanish wine, Castile has an excellent reputation amongst those who have been drinking their wines for years. Surviving Franco and his vision of vast cornfields to feed his army, the growers in Castile are masters with indigenous grapes – red and white. In Rueda they grow the local grape, Verdejo. A rival to Sauvignon Blanc, a bottle of Verdejo is a must for any dedicated Marlborough drinker looking to explore a wider world of floral, refreshing wines.
Galicia -The Medieval Villages of the Iberian Peninsula
In Galicia, unlike any other part of Spain, time moves to its own rhythm. Hamlets and villages lay dormant in their surrounds of woods and fields. In the streets and homes, modern technology translates to simple inconvenience when confronted with the repertoires of traditional practice. As for winemaking, a few avant-garde cellars are embracing modernity and producing some serious wine. For example: in the small D.O. Rias Baixas they have set themselves the task of turning the once despised Albariňo into a Spanish classic.
Navarra – The Pathway of the Santiago de Compostela
Under the Roman occupation the region of Navarra was central to their wine production. We are not talking on a small scale either: in the town of Funes excavations revealed cellars with a capacity of some 20,000 gallons. In modern times, winemaking in Navarra has become synonymous with Rosado. Made from Garnacha these wines have been seen as simple, pleasant table wines. No doubt that has as much to do with the place of rosé in the market as it does to their viticulture and winemaking. Things are changing, the length and precision of the Santa Cruz de Artazuri demonstrates just how individual and how powerful their Rosados can be.
La Rioja – The Saviour of Bordeaux’s Negociants
Late in the 19th century Bordeaux was paralysed with the sudden and terrifying outbreak of phylloxera. Looking to fill their tanks the winemakers headed south into Spain. La Rioja was their destination. Impressed with their grapes, but not with the quality of their wine, master French winemaker Jean Pineau taught a select group of estate owners to use the French method of mashing in large wooden barrels and finishing the wine in small oak casks. Today the wines of La Rioja are sought the world over.
Levant – Where the Vines Survived the Dreaded Phylloxera
These vines exist in D.O. Yecla. When the rest of Europe’s vines were paralysised by phylloxera, the dry climate, the arid soil and the mountain range that runs toward the coast halted the pest’s advance. As a result the vines in Yecla are some of the oldest in the world. The main grape they grow is Monastrell. The wines usually have persisting, robust tannins, though they can be macerated carbonically – a process of fermenting the grapes before they are pressed – in order to drink young. Monastrell lends itself to blends, stabilising Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo to produce balanced, aromatic wines.
Jerez y Sanlúcar de Barrameda – Inside the Golden Triangle
Sherry is the champagne of Spain. Spanish authorities finally won the battle to reserve the name sherry for wines produced within Jerez and its surrounds. Similar to attempts across the world to recreate the majesty of Champagne, efforts to make sherry still lack a quality that is characteristic of Jerez’s flavour and finesse. Part of that has to do with the soil, the climate and the age of the barrels. Yet more importantly it is something engrained in their lives; an essential part of their social world from when they are young. Such romanticism is starting to translate across the globe. Sherry is no longer just an accompaniment to bridge and canasta. Take a chilled glass of the dry fino as an aperitif or accompany dessert with the sweet styles made with Pedro Ximenez.
The Former Colonies – Growing the New World’s Pulque
They came with self-assured Imperial zeal, carried disease deep into the land, filled cities with bloody violence and set about planting their precious grape vines that had been nurtured on the long voyage into the soil. The paradox is chilling enough, but then again that was the Spanish empire in the 15th and 16th century. The empire has gone and the colonies have regained control of their land. Still the vines remain. Chile and Argentina now blend their own wine that rivals their former masters.