China become the fast-growing destination for Spanish wines

MADRID, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Twenty years ago if you asked someone to name three Spanish wines they would almost certainly have replied "Sherry, Cava and Rioja." While those three are still probably the most popular Spanish wines backed up by generations of expertise and tradition, there are now plenty of reasons to look at the new exciting wines that are being produced in the country.

Spain has a tradition of wine production dating back 3,000 years to the arrival of the Phoenicians. Techniques improved with the arrival of the Romans in the country, and although wine production suffered a setback with the invasion of the Islamic and therefore non-drinking Moors in the eighth century, the tradition had nonetheless taken root.

Today Spain has more land dedicated to grape cultivation than any other country in Europe. Its 1,200,000 hectares of vines means 35 percent more land is dedicated to wine production than in either Italy or France.

Yet the amount of wine being produced is no guarantee of quality; indeed some would argue it is the opposite. In the past, most Spanish wines were cheap and mass-produced: the sort of wine that was either exported to countries with less discerning palates, or which the Spanish drank themselves at lunch, usually mixed with lemonade to help make it more drinkable.

That began to change as a new generation of wine producers began to realize the unique possibilities offered by the country's geography: Spain stretches from the warm and wet Atlantic coast of the Galicia region, where they produce fragrant white wines such as Albarino, to the hot plains of Castilla-la Mancha, home of the potent red wines of areas such as the Ribera del Duero.

The presence of the sea in the Valencia region allows for cool air to help produce grapes that the hot climate would not normally allow, while Andalusia is suited to the production of powerful wines such as Sherry.

Cristian Klecker of the Bodegas Chivite, a wine producing dynasty known for its Navarran wines, talked to Xinhua about Spain's advantages as well as about a wine tasting event at the "Lavinia" in Madrid, the wine store with the biggest surface area in all of Europe.

"Spain has many different types of soil and climate. Most people don't know that Spain is the second most mountainous country in Europe after Switzerland, so it is easy to find the small micro-climate and the certain soil, where Chardonnay, Tempranillo, Shiraz or other varieties adapt," he said.

Spain now has over 5,500 different wineries and produces around 48 million hectoliters of wine a year. Despite the fact that Spain has more land dedicated to growing grapes than France and Italy, it is Europe's third largest producer.

This is partly due to the country's strict quality control. Spain now has 67 regions which are qualified as "Denominacion de Origen" (DO), which places limits on production and demands on quality.

Thirty-seven further regions have earned the qualification "Vino de la Tierra," where demands are less strict, while everyday wine is classified as "Vino de Mesa."

The quality control means that customers can have confidence in the product when they see the "DO" label on the bottle, and it has allowed regions other than La Rioja to successfully market their products.

That has helped regions such as Ribera del Duero, Priorat and Navarra all boost their image, which has been reflected in an increase in sales. According to a study by the Observatorio Espanol del Mercado del Vino (OEMV) published in July 2009, 43 million people worldwide now drink Spanish wine on a regular basis.

Meanwhile, the first six months of 2010 saw exports of Spanish wine reach a value of 1,001.1 million euros (1,380 million U.S. dollars), with China the fastest developing market for this product. Between January to July 2010, exports from Spain to China grew by 406 percent.

The good news for the Spanish wine industry is that according to the OEMV study, there are still 130 million habitual wine drinkers who hardly know the product or who drink it infrequently. That means there is still a huge market left to exploit.