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Located on the Iberian peninsula seperated from France by the Pyrenees mountains. Spain is the third largest counrty in Europe and the third largest wine producing country in the world with the largest area under vine, much of which is irrigated to offset the overall dry climatic conditions. Culturally Spain is a diverse milei of linguistic and culinary regional traditions which is reflected in the diversity of wine styles, ranging from light bodied, aromatic whites through to full bodied reds and exceptional world famous fortified wines of Sherry. The history of viticulture in Spain, as with much of central Europe is long and rich, with evidence of viticulture dating as far as 3000BCE and evidence of export to Italy and France during the height of the Roman empire.
Spain is divided into a number of distinct growing regions which are governed by a four tier system governed by the Nacional de Denominaciones de Origen, with every autonomous region controlling its own appellations. The distinct qulaity designations follow a combination of French and Italian quality classifications and are as follows; Vino de Mesa (VdM) indicates the basic quality level including all wine made from unclassified vineyards or wine which has been declasified by blending across regions, the equivlent to the EU catagory of Table Wine, interestingly as with the Italian system of IGT, this now includes some of Spain's most expensive wines and sought after wines. Vino de la Tierra (VdlT) indicates wines from a specific region which conform to local governing laws, effectivley a counterpart to the Vin de Pays (VdP) classification in France. Vinos de Calidad con Indicacion Geografica (VCIG) is a stepping stone catagory to higher quality levels. However it is the Denominacion de Origen (DO) classification which is most signifiant internationally and form a rough equivelent to the DOC system in Italy, indicating wines labled DO have a regional specificity and ensuring they conform to specific criteria set by a local governing body which sets regional standars covering yields, growing, wine production and marketing of all wines to specific regional standards. There are currently 64 DO regions which occupy two thirds of the vineyard area of Spain. Denominacion de Origen - Pago (DO Pago) is a new catagory designating outstanding single estates that fall either inside or outside the DO area but are using only their own grapes to make wine, essentially a quality catagory designed to account for high quality wines which fall in the VdM quality designation. Finally the highest quality catagory is Denominacion de Origen Calaficada (DOC) roughly equates to the DOCG system of Italy, indicating more stringent growing rules and a wine originating from the traditional heart of a specific growing region, there are only two regions with this distinction, Rioja and Priorat.
The geogrophy and climate of Spain is complex and varied. Protected to the north by teh Pyrenese Iberian Peninsula's signifant elevation about sea level make for a dry and often hot climate. The northern costal area of Gallacia to the Pyrenese alond Spains northern border with France is a humid and releativley cool climate. The main central plateau of Spain, however is dry and warm due to the shelter of the Pyrenese. The most important northern region, Rioja DO, therefore is relativley dry and warm, though in close proximity to the atlantic with ideal growing conditions for the most important native variety, Tempranillo and also Grenach. North of Rioja lies Navarra, the dominat variety planted is Grenach which is used to produce modern rose wines or blended with international varieties such as merlot or cabernet sauvignon. The Ribera del Duero lies below Rioja and spans the upper valley of the Duero river. Warm and arid, the Ribera del Duero produces a range of premium through to commercial red table wines from native and international varieties, though the majority are tempranillo and grenach based.
The Spanish east coast is infuenced by its proximity to the medeteranian and warmer. The two important regions are Catalunya and Priorat. Catalunya produces good quality red wine with Tempranillo, Grenach and international varieties. More importanty Catalunya produces the sparkling wine of Spain, Cava made using traditional method and produced with native Spanish varieties.
Priorat is the most important premium red wine region along the east coast highly elevated and renown for producing grenache based blends off vineyards on schist soils, which are deep in colour, powerful, full bodied and renown for their complexity and tannin structure.
The Central and Southern parts of Spain are climatically more extreme Winters are long and cold, summer extrememly hot. The most important regions of southern and central Spain are the central area of La Mancha and further south Valdependas. La Mancha and Valdependas are hot and arid necessitating irrigated vineyards, producing tempranillo and grenache based wines simmilar in style to Rioja, yet in the main designed for early drinking.
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