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Cool Climate
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Spain
The largest wine producer in the world.
Viticulture
- Acerage
1.4 x 106 ha./ 3.5 x 106 acres of vines.
Land under cultivation is half again as high as France and Italy.
- Yield
35 x 106 hl / 924 x 106 gal of wine.
Average Yield = 25 hl / ha or 1.4 tons / acre.
Irrigation is BANNED in Spain! What would happen if irrigation were banned in California or Eastern Washington or Australia?
- Geography & Climate
Mountain ranges (cordilleras) divide Spain into cool and warm climate. Most wine is produced south of the cordilleras and the terrain ranges from the moderately dry in the north (450 mm in Haro in the Ebro valley home of the Riojas) to Guadalquivir valley in Andalucia where Sherry comes from and the summer temperatures exceed 45 deg C (
- Cultivars - 600 +
Airen - The most widely planted grape cultivar in the world. A white grape grown in the vast heart land of La Mancha. The wine lake of Spain.
Garnacha - A dark skinned for ordinary wines in the the north fromHaro to Catalonia.
BoBal & Monastrell - (Mourvedre in France) Red grapes of the Lavante.
Tempranillo, Palomino, Pedro Ximenez
Wines
- Rioja - Dense red wines aged in barricas (oak barrels)
Origin (no oak)
Crianza (1 oak + 2 tanks)
Reserva (1 oak + 2 bottle)
Gran Reserva (2 oak + 3 bottle)
- Sherry -
fino - Fortified to 15.5% alcohol fermented with Flor Yeast less oxidation.
oloroso - Fortified to 18% alcohol and oxidized.
palo cortado - Fortified to 15.5% but the Flor Yeast dies in the middle.
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