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Tempranillo

Tempranillo is the most prestigous grape grown in Rioja and Ribeira del Duero in Spain. It produces less alcholic wines than garnacha and can age very well, especially when it is blended. Tempranillo benefits from a cooler climate and requires more rainfall than garnacha. It produces a full bodied wine that has a fair amount of tannins, and often has notes of coffee or tobacco. Tempranillo also goes by the following names: Ull de Llebre (catalan), Tinta de Toro,Tinto Fino, Tinta del País, and Cencibel.

Spanish Wine Laws

Spanish wine laws are governed by the Instituto Nacional de Denominaciones de Origen (INDO). The wine laws currently lay out the following categories of wines:

Level A

1. Vinos de Mesa, which means table wine, is the most basic type of wine. The grapes can come from anywhere in Spain, and the bottle will simple say, “Product of Spain” on it. Most of this wine is not exported.
2. Vinos de Mesa de ____, is table wine that comes from a specific area. Each area has grape varietals that are permitted and will specify minimum alcohol levels. This label is often used by experimental wine makers that want to use grapes not normally found in the area.

Level B

1. Vinos de Calidad con Indicación Geográfica, which is on the label as Vino de la Tierra de ___, is very similar to the Vin de Pays category in France. All the grapes in these wines must come from the area mentioned on the label, and the wine must also be made and bottled in that area. The quality of the wine is judged and controlled by the consejo regulador, and the area is often waiting to apply for the higher DO status, which it may after 5 years.
2. Vinos con Denomicación de Origen, often abreviated as DO. DO wines have rules imposed by the consejo as far as what grapes are allowed and minimum alcohol levels. The rules must be ratified by INDO and the EU. Right now there are 69 DO’s, and the number can change every year.
3. Vinos Con Denominación de Origen Calificada, which is abbreviated DOCa, is the highest level of classification allowed. To be a DOCa, the area had to have been a DO for at least 10 years. The quality control is even more rigorous than it is for a DO. Right now, there are only three DOCa’s. Rioja was the first in 1991, followed by Priorat in 2000, and as of this year, Ribeira del Duero has also become a DOCa. Note that Priorat bottles will say DOQ instead of DOCa, because the Q stands for Qalificada in Catalan, the language spoken there.
4. Vinos de Pago. Pago means parcel, as in a parcel of land. Vinos de Pago is a special extra appellation, used mostly in La Manca, that implies a specific microclimate within a DO. It is not a higher level of quality than DOCa.

Spain also has laws governing the aging labels that can go on the bottle. The laws differ slightly depending on the DO, and many winemakers are beginning to disregard the lableing terms all together, as they feel it restricts them making the best wine possible. For example, if the consejo regulador requires that a crianza wine be aged in oak for 12 months, and the winemaker tastes the wine at 11 months of ageing and decides it is better for the wine to be bottled right then, he will forgoe the crianza designation completely. For a basic understanding of the labeling terms, Joven, which means young refers to a wine that has spent very little or no time in oak, and is not meant to be aged, but drank young and fruity. Crianza is a wine that usually must spend 12 months in oak and an additional 12 months in the bottle. With Reserva wines, the ageing time in the bottle increases to 24 months, but still only 12 months in the barrel. And with Gran Reserva wines, the wine must spend 24 months in oak, and 36 months in the bottle. Many times the winemakers will excede these lengths by a great deal before the wine is released.

History of Spanish Wine Making

The history of wine making in Spain dates back several thousand years, as it does in most European countries. The Phoneticians were the first to cultivate wine in Spain on an organized level, around 1000 BC. When Rome occupied Spain in 100 BC, Spanish wine was traded throughout Europe under the Roman Empire. At this point it was often used as a blending wine to raise alcohol levels of wines made in cooler areas of Europe.

In 711, when the Moors conquered Spain, wine was technically outlawed under Islamic law. It appears that wine trade still exists though, as it was taxed by the Moors. The Moors also developed the technique of distillation, which they used to make medicinal alcohol. This technique very likely may have been adopted by the Spaniards to make Brandy, and to make the spirits used to fortify Sherry.

Phylloxera did not hit Spain until the 19th century, significantly after it had devastated most of Europe’s vineyards. As a result, Spain was able to benefit from discoveries made about grafting techniques, so when the disease did spread, they were able to use the new grafting techniques to save themselves. The same held true for Powdery Mildew, which also started the trend of French winemakers coming to Spain. While the French waited for their fields to recover from the mildew, they foraged south into Spain, bringing French winemaking techniques with them, establishing wine areas that are still vital to Spain’s wine industry today. They also introduced the use of oak barrels as a wine making technique.

In 1872, José Raventós used the French méthode champenoise to make a champagne style sparkling wine, which is today called Cava. Spain had previously tried to recreate Champagne using Champagne grapes, but was not successful. José risky innovation was to use native Spanish grapes to make Cava. The risk paid off, as in 2001 Cava overtook Champagne as the most consumed sparkling wine in the world.

The Spanish Civil War in the 1930’s and World War II took a huge toll on Spanish winemaking. Many of the vineyards were devastated by the wars, and the conflict with other nations virtually eliminated the trade of wine. After the war was over, many of the smaller estates could not afford to replant their grapes, and died off. For a long time only large conglomerates produced very ordinary table wine. On top of this Franco’s medieval dictatorship that followed prevented Spain from modernizing in all fassets of its civilization. When he died in 1975, Spain took great pains to learn modernizing techniques, and the wine industry began to develop once more. As a result, Spain’s wine history was almost restarted in the 70’s, far behind the innovations of the French and Italians.

Spain became a member of the European Union in 1986, and with that came a great deal of financial support for the wine industry. So in fact, the production of quality wine in Spain came quiet a while after the United States. As you might expect then, Spain is still in its infancy of understanding its own terroir and what it takes to produce top quality wine. While there are many fine producers using the latest techniques, there are also many who have not caught up with them. It is risky, for example, to order a siginificantly aged red wine in a restaurant in Spain today, because those wines were not often stored the way they should have been, and they are often cooked beyond drinkability. There are however, many fine wines coming out of Spain, and the potential for more to develop is ever-present.

Spain

Spain is very large and very diverse winemaking area. It has the most hectares under vine (1.2 million) in Europe, yet it falls in third place in total wine production, behind France and Italy. A lot of the grapes grown are used to produce Sherry Vinegar and Spanish brandy. Spain’s climate ranges from Maritime areas near the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, to cooler high altitude locations, to arid almost desert like climates. There are also many different soil types, which I will discuss in detail when I talk about each individual region. Unlike France and Italy, Spain has many areas whose potential has not yet been fully tapped, and is sure to grow in importance as time passes.

Non-Traditional Sparkling Wine Production Methods

Sparkling wine is made everywhere in the world, and many places use the Champagne method, although the ageing requirements may be less.

Crémant is a sparkling wine made in France outside of the Champagne region, which must be aged in the bottle a minimum of 9 months. Here is a list of the Crémant appelations and where they are from:

Crémant de Bourgogne: Burgundy, mostly made from Chardonnay.

Crémant de Die: Rhone Valley, mostly made from Clairette.

Crémant d’Alsace: Alsace, made from Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay.

Crémant de Limoux: South of France, mostly made from Mauzac, Chenin Blanc, and Chardonnay.

Crémant de la Loir: Loire Valley, made from Chenin , Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Grolleau.

Crémant de Vouvray: Loir Valley area that uses exclusively Chenin Blanc.

Crémant de Saumur: Another Loire valley aea that uses Pinot Noir and Meunier, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, and Grolleau.

The Charmat method, also called Cuvée Close is a method where the secondary fermentation happens in a tank rather than in a bottle. The tank is sealed and pressurized, so the the carbon dioxide can not escape. The wine is then transferred to the bottle under pressure. This method is much cheaper and quicker, but for some reason does not produce the same kind of fine bubbles. The bubbles are larger and leave the wine much quicker than in the traditional method.

The Transversage method is the same as the traditional method except the wine is removed from the original bottle after disgorgement, placed in a pressurized tank, and then rebottled. This is used only for smaller or very large bottles.

The cheapest method for making sparkling wine is to simply carbonate the wine, exactly in the same way carbon dioxide is added to make soda. The bubbles in these types of wines will be very large and will dissapear very quickly.

The Méthode Champenoise

The traditional Champagne method is used all over the world and is a general indication of a certain level of quality. The method is quite complex, and fascinating to study.

Harvest in Champagne happens in October and is done entireley by hand. No machine harvesting is allowed in Champagne.

Pressing is done in the pressoir coquart, a device invented by Dom Perignon, which presses grapes in a shallow pan, that allows the juice to leek away quickly, ensuring that there is no contact with the skins that would add red color to the wine. In the case of rosé champagne, there are two methods used to extract color. In one method, the juice will receive a slight amount of skin contact. In the other, red wine is simply blended in to add color. The pressoir can hold 4,000 kg of grapes, and will extract 2,550 liters of juice from those grapes. Of that juice, the first 2,0050 liters are referred to as the cuvée, which has higher acidity and sugar levels. The remaining amount is called the taille.

After pressing the first fermentation begins. This wine is fermented dry, and is usually done in stainless steel tanks, although there are a few champagne houses that ferment in new oak barrels, to add some oak flavors t the wine.

Malolactic fermentation almost always takes place with Champagne, because the acidity levels are so high.

The assemblage, or blending, is a critical element in champagne production. Each house has developed a particular style of wine, and every year they attempt to match that style by blending anywhere from 70 to 100’s of different vintages, vineyards, and grape varieties. This technique of blending is enormously complex and is an art which is only one of the factors that makes champagne so expensive.

The second fermentation, which must take place in the bottle the wine will be drunk from, is started by adding the liquer de tirage, which is a mixture of wine, sugar, and yeast. The bottle is sealed with a bottle cap, and aged either on its side (sur pointe) or while facing down (sur latte). The sur latte method is more expensive because it is harded and less space efficient to store them this way. The wine is then aged in the bottle, on the dead yeast cells, which gives champagne its distintive creamy, yeasty flavor. The process of the decomposition of the yeast cells is called autolysis. For non-vintage champagnes, the bottle must age in this way for at least 15 months, although most of them age much longer. For vintage champagne, the wine must age for at least 3 years, and many are aged much longer before they are released.

After the bottle is done ageing, the sediment from the dead yeast must somehow be removed. This is down through a process called Remuage or riddling. Traditionally the riddling is done by hand. The riddler will take each bottle and shake them slightly while gradually turning them so the top of the bottle points straight down. The entire process takes three weeks, and the riddlers are known for their massive forearms! Today, most of this riddling is done by large gyropallette machines that can accomplish the task in just one week.

After the bottles are pointing straight down and all the yeast has settled to the bottom, the top of the bottle is put into a freezing brine solution. In the Disgorgement phase, the cap is removed, and the gas pressure inside the wine pops out the frozen yeast, leaving only wine behind.

Finally, a dosage, consisting of sugar and wine, is added to the bottle before it is sealed with a cork. The amount of sugar added depends on the type of wine that is being produced. Only extra brut or brut savage champagnes receive no sugar at all. Here is a list of the varying sweetness levels of champagne, and the amount of sugar in each:

Style Residual Sugar (grams/liter)

Extra Brut              <6

Brut                       <15

Extra Sec                12-20

Sec                         17-35

Demi-Sec               35-50

Doux                      >50

Champagne Grape Varieties

The three grapes used in Champagne are Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay. Pinot Meunier is a black grape that is closely related to Pinot Noir, but is pretty much only used to make champagne. You might be surpised to find out that two black grapes are used to make a white wine, but champagne is the exception. The skins do not come in contact with the must, so therefore no color is leeched ino the wine. Pinot Noir is used to give body and aroma to champagne. Meunier gives it an extra kick of fruit, and chardonnay adds finesse and elegance. Here is a list of the different districts of Champagne and which grapes they tend to use:

Montagne de Reims: Mostly Pinot Noir

Vallée de la Marne: Pinot Meunier

Côte des Blanes: almost all Chardonnay

Côte de Sézanne: Mostly Chardonnay

Aube Vineyards: Mostly Pinot Noir

Champagne Geography, Climate, and Soil

Champagne is generally considered to have some pretty bad weather. It’s the most northerly wine growing area in France, and it’s proximity to the English channel cools down the region quite a bit. It also gets quite a bit of rain, about 26 inches annually. The area is full of rolling hills that create many differnt microclimates. Champagne is divided into five major districts: Montagne de Reims, Côte des Blanes, Côtes de Sézanem Vallée de la Marne, and the Aube Vineyards. The soil is champagne consists almost entirely of a thin top soil over a chalk base. The chalk helps drainage and also produces wine very high in acidity.

Champagne laws

For a wine to be labled as Champagne, all of the grapes used to make that wine have to be grown in Champagne. In addition, the secondary fermentation must take place within the bottl the wine is going to be drank from, not in a tank.

All the vineyards in Champagne are rated according to L’echelle des crus (ladder of growths). The ladder was created by the Comité Interprofessional du Vin de Champagne (CIVC). The CIVC sets a value for the fruit grown in the different villages in percentages. The grand cru fruit is valued at 100%, Premier Cru at 90-99%, and Village aread at 80-89%. There are 17 Grand Cru and 40 Premier Cru villages.

The following special terms can appear on Champagne labels:

NM- Négociant-Manipulant: a commerical house that buys grapes

CM- Coopérative-Manipulant: a grower cooperative

RM- Récoltant-Manipulant: a grower/producer

MA- Marque-Auxillaire: a brand name

RC- Récoltant-Coopérative: a grower working with a cooperative

SR- Société de Récoltants: a grower partnership

ND- Négociant-Distributeur a distributor label

The History of Champagne

The history of Champagne dates back to 1531, when Benedictine monks first made wine that sparkled, which they called Blanquette de Limoux. In the 17th century, however Champagne as we know it now started when Dom Pérignon invented a specialized press for Champagne called a pressoir coquart. Dom also started blending wines of different grapes and vintages. In 1805, the widow cliquot invented what is called Riddling, and in 1884 Disgorgement started. I’ll go into detail about how all those things affect champagne production in a larer entry. Today sparkling wine is produced all over the world, and many of the french champagn makers are involved in its production.