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The Wines of Spain: Rioja, Spanish Cava and More
Did you know Spain is the third-largest wine producer in the world? Italy and France are the two largest, but Spain is a close runner up, and has been making wines since Roman times. However, the country's wine did not become well-known internationally or merchandized until about 25 years ago.
The only major exception is Sherry (known in Spain as vino de Jerez), which has been bought by British merchants for many, many years.
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Spanish Vineyards
One word you may see repeated on Spanish bottles of wine is "bodegas," which simply refers to a wine cellar or winery. Each wine region has several wineries. La Mancha, the largest wine region in the country, has 195 Spanish vineyards. |
Spanish Wine Regions
There are seven recognized wine-producing regions in Spain. The best-known of these include:
- Penedès: Located near Barcelona, the region of Penedès produces both red and white wines. It has become famous both for producing Torres, the largest Spanish wine brand name, and for being the place where the Reventos family first made Cava, a sparkling wine that used to be called Spanish Champagne.
Some other Spanish vineyards do make Cava as well, but the ones from Penedès dominate the marketplace. This is true in spite of a plague of pests known as phylloxera that decimated the vineyards in the late 19th century. Production resumed in the 1950s and has since flourished.
- Priorato: A flagship region of Spanish winemaking is Priorato. Along with Rioja, the Priorato region qualifies as Denominación de Origen Calificada (DOCa), the highest regional qualification in winemaking according to Spanish law. These two regions are the only ones in the country to qualify.
Priorato is found in Catalonia, Spain, and has produced wine since the 12th century. The Monastery of Scala Dei created the first vineyard in 1163, and the monks continued to tend it until 1835 when it was distributed by the state to shareholders.
- Ribera del Duero:Although this region does not have the long history of Rioja, it produces some wonderful wines notable for their rich intensity. It became an official wine region in 1982 and has since challenged Rioja (which lies to its north) for the best red wines in the country. It too uses the Tempranillo grape.
- Rioja: One of the flagship regions of Spanish winemaking, Rioja has become the most famous of all the Spanish wine regions. With its focus on red wines, it sometimes gets labeled as the Napa Valley of Spain.
The four red grape varieties in the Rioja region are:
- Garnacha (also called Grenache)
- Graciano
- Mazuelo
- Tempranillo.
Graciano and Mazuelo get used somewhat less than the other two grape varieties, not because they lack anything in quality but simply because they are harder to grow. For this reason, the top wines often contain Tempranillo grapes with the other three grape types blended in.
Crianza and Reservas
The word Crianza describes any wine that has been aged for two years with at least one year in a cask.
Reservas are wines aged three years, with one year in an oak cask, one year in a bottle and one year in either. Gran Reservas, or Reserva Especial, describe wines aged at least five years, with at least 18 months in oak and at least three years in the bottle.
Cosecha is another category of Spanish wine. It means "vintage," but these wines are young and not typically aged in wood.
