History and overview

As for the whole Mediterranean region, the vineyard dates back to the era of trade with the Phoenicians, then the Roman occupation. It is a very large vineyard but whose performance is lower than that of Italy and France. The explanation lies in plantations less tight and a lower yield per vine. Since its entry into Europe, Spain has boosted wine while not yielding to fashion international varieties. The dynamism and modernism through the tradition ...

Climate

The vast majority of wine undergoes a Mediterranean climate hot and dry, a small portion is under oceanic influence. These conditions, sometimes extreme (the people of Madrid are accustomed to say 9 months of winter, 3 months of hell) can cause the grapes to significant levels of maturation, where a large concentration of matter and titles alcoolimétriques high.

Grapes

 

The main red varieties	The main white grape varieties
Grenache (Granach) Tempranillo Monastrell Carignan (Cariñena) Merlot	Macabea (Viura and Macabeo) Grenache blanc Malvasia Palomino Parellada

 

System Designations

As in France, Spain has long adopted a system of names to ensure quality and protect the growers and their markets.
Spain was divided into 12 production regions, like our departments, they are simply geographical boundaries. Wines produced in these areas are entitled to the appellation of Vino de la Tierra, equivalent to wine country or the simple name "vino de mesa (table wine) they are inferior.

Within these regions, the INDO (Instituto Nacional de Denominaciones de Origen), equivalent to the French INAO, defined areas entitled to the appellation DO (Denominacíon de Origen) equivalent of AOC since 1991 and the 'appellation DOC (Denominacíon Calificada de Origen) to a level superior to that DO complete system.

For each name, there is a controller board that has a special stamp must be affixed to the bottle is a guarantee of the name.

Spain has also stamps to define and guarantee the degree of aging of wine. We distinguish:

• Vino de crianza: Wine that has 3 years with at least a year spent in barrels
• Vino de reserva: 3 years in barrels or bottles, at least 1 year was
• Vino de gran reserva: 2 years in barrels and 3 years of bottle

Appellations

Spain has established a quarantine of names entitled to the appellation DO and DOC which are distributed on different wine regions indicated on the map in Figure 2.

Cataluña	C. Valenciana	Aragón	Murcia	Castilla La Mancha	Navarra
Alella Penedes Tarragona Terra Alta Cava Emporda Costa Brava Costers del Segre Priorato	Alicante Utiel-Requena Valencia	<Calatayud Campo de Borja Cariñena Somontano	Jumilla Yecla	Almansa Méntrida La Mancha Valdepeñas Mondejar Manchuela Vinos de Madrid	Navarra
Rioja	Pais Vascos	Castilla y León	Extremadura	Galicia	Andaloucia
Rioja (D.O) Rioja (D.O.C)	<Chacolí	Cicadas Toro Bierzo Rueda Ribera del Duero	No D.O.	Ribeiro Valdeorras Rías Baixas Monterrei Ribeira Sacra	Condado de Huelva Montilla-Moriles Malaga Jerez-Sherry-Sherry

Characteristics of wines

Red wines (Vino Tinto)

If it had retained two names in red, this would certainly Rioja and Ribera del Ruedo. These red wines are powerful, but remain focused on the fruit. Rioja often develops notes of strawberry, while the Ribera del Ruedo is fairly wooded and develops notes of plum and blackberry. Note that Priorato wines are produced in the purest local tradition, the result is extremely concentrated wines and spicy.
Serving temperature: between 16 and 18 ° C maximum

The dry white wines (Vino Blanco)

Even if Spain is best known for its powerful reds and purposes, it also offers dry white wines of good quality. The name Rías Baixas provides dry white wine and flowers, and the name Rueda provides dry white wines, lively but light and pleasant.
Serving temperature: between 7 and 8 ° c according to the designations

Rosé wines (Vino rosado)

Spain produces many rosé wines whose quality varies greatly from one region to another. It is noteworthy that the roses Navarre and Rioja provide consistent quality. Some reveal aromas of strawberry and is extremely pleasant at the time of the aperitif to accompany the traditional tapas.
Serving temperature: Between 6 and 8 ° c according to the designations

Sparkling wines (cava, vinos espumosos)

It is a unique Spanish, all sparkling wines are entitled to the appellation Cava. However, it is in the zone designation of Penedes What produced the majority of production. These wines are made using traditional methods but with the local grape varieties: Parellada, maccabéo. However there are more and more of cava developed based chardonnay.
Serving temperature: Between 6 and 8 ° c

Other products around the wine ....

The sherry

Unable to speak of Spain not to mention the most famous fortified wines of the Jerez (or sherry). Sherry is a fortified white wine, for that we prepare a traditional white wine from the palomino grape, is added to brandy wine (15%) and everything is put in oak barrels. There he formed a veil called the Flor that protects the wine from oxidation degree. The wine will undergo several passages in a logical order in a cascade of drums called Solera, this method is always a long and complex, it tends to marginalize the producer. Depending on the length and type of vinage yields very different products:

• Fino: most of all, it is pleasant and delicate.
• Manzanilla: it is a fino or amontillado sherry produced in Sanlucar de Barrameda)
• Amontillado: Sherry darker than Fino, simple and elegant with flavors of hazelnut, there are also semi-sweet version.
• Olorosso: Most of amber sherry, flavored nuts that characterizes it.

The Málaga

The Malaga is a sweet fortified wine made from the muscatel grape, muscatel Alejandría and Pedro Ximenez. It is developed using the same system as for the sherry, the solera (cascading drums). It has a beautiful mahogany color, its aromas reminiscent of caramel, raisins and spices. There are several kinds of Malaga, or VDL, or VDN and several ages:

• Malaga, 6 to 24 months.
• Málaga Noble, 2 to 3 years.
• Málaga Añejo, 3 to 5 years.
• Málaga Trasañejo over 5 years.