Spanish Wine Knowledge
Spain is one of the main wine producers of the world, together with France and Italy, producing these three countries altogether around 50% of the world’s wine. Spain vineyard has the biggest surface in the world, and its wine exports are also the highest, although the total production ranks in third position behind France and Italy, due to its relatively lower national consumption patterns.
Wine production in Spain dates from more than 2000 years ago and it acquired a major development during the Roman Empire, when it was exported to Italy to delight the Empire Leaders who were aware of its remarkable quality.
The wine production in Spain is highly regulated by the DO’s (Denominación de Origen), which are official entities that control the wine produced under their areas and ensure that the production meets their standards, both in terms of quality as well as in terms of style, varieties of grapes employed, usage of oak barrels, etc. The DO’s do not have status of government entities, but corporate associations similar to Chambers of Commerce, but they are entitled legally to regulate the wine production, so their actions are binding for the producers of each region. Currently there are in Spain 75 DO’s, which have each one well-defined features according to their climate, soil, grape varieties and wine styles. For this reason, Spanish wine style cannot be defined into one clear category, as some of the wines are made from well ripened red grapes that result in high-alcohol high-sugar reds similar to new world wines, where as some other from rainy and mild weather regions result in acidic whites close to German Rieslings.
Wines made under a DO have a special back label with a registration number unique to each bottle, and their production is controlled strictly, so that only the wines that have passed the controls can be labeled and sold under the DO category. Each one of the 75 different DO’s separate quality inspection boards and also the back labels stuck on each bottle have different designs.
Nevertheless, most DO’s share in common a similar system to categorize the wine quality, and it is based on the aging time. For the majority of them, there are four categories: 1) Joven: for wines that have not been aged in oak barrel 2) Crianza: wines with a total aging time of 2 years, of which at least 6 months must be in an oak barrel 3) Reserva: wines with with a total aging time of 3 years, of which in oak barrel must be at least 12 months. 4) Gran Reserva: total aging of 5 years, of which at least 2 years in the oak barrel.
