» Origins of Spanish Wine – Part II Spanish Wines

This is the second article chronicling the history of Spanish wine…

The approximately 800 years that  followed the Moors near-full conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 718 C.E. was a major battle between the Moors and the Spaniards.  The Reconquista, as it was called, finally ended in 1492 with the Treaty of Grenada.  I found this nice flash picture somewhat detailing the reconquest of Spain and Portugal from the Moors.  Wine production was quite slow during the Moor occupation, although Xeres was still able to keep strong production going mostly due to a good job of convincing the local caliphs that their Sherry had medicinal purposes.  The wine industry eventually creeped back into business as the Spaniards regained more and more control of the Iberian Peninsula.  Wine exports were very slow due to Muslim dietary laws forbidding alcohol, although several emirs and caliphs on the peninsula had their own wineries.  As the Spanish regained more land, the more wine that was exported.

During this time port cities like Bilbao in the north of Spain became important in distributing wine to France and played a major role introducing this wine into England.  The English regarded this wine very highly due to the wines’ high alcohol content and full-bodied nature and made these wines some of the more highly priced wines in Britain.  In return for the wine, which was mostly Sherry, the English would trade their wool.  Relations between the two countries fell apart after English King Henry VIII’s first divorce to from Spanish Catherine of Aragon (his first wife) in 1525 so, the wine trade to England came close to halt for quite a while.  The Spanish Inquisition was occurring during this time as well so, most of the English merchants left Spain out of fear.

For those that know their American history quite well, the year 1492 might ring a bell.  Indeed, it is the same year that Christoffa Corombo, excuse me, Christopher Columbus discovered America.  Naturally, the discovery of America marked a new area of the world for the Spaniards to market and grow their wine.  Colonists had brought grape vines to build new vineyards from Mexico to Argentina.  It wasn’t for long that these new colonial wineries had a great effect on the Spanish economy.  However, once the Spanish Armada was defeated by the English in in 1588, the Spanish navy lost a considerable amount of power that it had in the Atlantic, which eventually drove the country into deep debt.   The effect this had on the Spanish wine industry, in Spain and its colonies, was quite great.  The debt accumulated in the early 1600′s forced King Phillip III to halt wine production in the Americas.  Why?  To increase wine exports from Spain, that way more money flows into debt-ridden Spain and not the colonies who are not as affected by the debt.

Interesting tidbits from this period:

- The Cordoniu winery, currently the world’s largest producer of Sparkling Wine, was founded in 1551 in what is currently to Cava region in Catalonia.

- Xeres became the first region to set up something similar to a D.O. in which rules and regulations were set up to standardize the making of Sherry and other wines in this region.

Technorati Tags: America, Catalonia, Cava, Cordoniu, Denominacion de Origen, England, Iberian Peninsula, Jerez, Sherry

via espanishwines.com