![]() Even today it is exceptional for wine producers to grow all their own grapes. Spain's main wine problems lie not in the vineyard but in the cellar, or rather the cellars of many of the co-operatives that vinify so much of the country's wine and the blending halls of the big bottlers which have dominated the country's wine trade. There are many other candidates for such a rescue, with Rioja's Graciano and the Galician Godello being obvious examples. Galicia's Albariño and Rueda's Verdejo are two white grape varieties of undisputable class and interest, Verdejo having been rescued only fairly recently from obscurity. The Monastrell so common in the Levante is none other than fashionable Mourvèdre. Spain's most planted grape variety was exported to France where it is known as Grenache. Tempranillo produces some of the country's most admired red wines and is planted widely under several aliases. Spain also has its own handsome array of indigenous grape varieties. Spain's wine surplus makes an ideal potent complement to the vapid sort of red that makes up France's wine lake. The traditional Spanish recipe for balancing this was to add white grapes or white wine. Lower altitude vineyards, notably those of the Levante on the southern Mediterranean coast, tend to produce wines whose main problem is an excess of alcohol and a lack of acidity. And because irrigation (officially allowed in Spain since 1996 but on a case by case basis) is expensive and rarely used, vines are typically planted as widely spaced bushes so that yields tend to be very low, ideally resulting in grapes packed full of flavour. A high proportion of Spanish vineyards therefore manage to produce grapes with good levels of colour and acidity simply because night-time temperatures are relatively low, and grapes do not ripen until the end of a usefully prolonged growing season. Spain's saving grace, viticulturally, is the average altitude of her vineyards, over 600 m (2,000 ft). There is real treasure to be found by those prepared to dig, however and, now that a connoisseur class has developed in Spain itself, all manner of ambitious investors have been doing their bit to change the image of Spanish wine.Ī look at a map suggests just how much climatic diversity there is likely to be between Spain's many wine regions, from the soggy green vineyards of Galicia on the north Atlantic coast to the baked Mediterranean south east. But Spain is an anarchic jumble of districts and regions, just as its landscape is an anarchic jumble of staggeringly raw scenery and heartbreakingly awful human constructions, and has to be treated as such by the wine enthusiast. If it had Germany's love of efficiency, or France's respect for centralism, Spain would have been sending us oceans of judiciously priced wine made expressly for the international market for decades. Proud possessor of more land devoted to vines than any other, Spain is only just beginning to capitalise on this resource in any consistent or cohesive way – which is perhaps not surprising. ![]() Investment and ambition in vineyard and winery are resulting in more and more rich – often highly alcoholic – spicy reds that are finding increasing favour among international consumers weaned on ripe New World wines. ![]() After years on the sidelines of the world of fine wine, it is now a major player. It could be argued that Spain is a viticultural miracle.
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