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Travel writer Mark Little brings you the story of Southern Spain's famous wines.
If you are an aficionado of fine wine, Spain is the place for you.
With a wine-making tradition spanning two millennia, and with more vineyard acreage than any other country in the world, Spain is producing wines of increasingly good quality. Southern Spain produces one of the most famous wines in the world, Sherry, grown in the area next to Jerez de la Frontera in the province of Cádiz. This is one of Andalusia's four Denominación de Origen areas (equivalent to France's Appellation d'origine controllée), together with Málaga, Montilla-Moriles and El Condado de Huelva. In addition, there are several Comarcas Vinícolas (smaller wine making districts), not to mention a handful of innovative vintners who are starting to produce interesting red table wines.
In the Beginning
Nobody knows when wine-making was first introduced to Andalusia. It could have been brought there by the Greeks 2,500 years ago or even earlier, by seafaring Phoenician traders from the east. What we do know for sure is that by the time of the Romans wine was being made in Andalusia in a big way, and the activity has continued more or less uninterruptedly ever since. Wine was appreciated even during the centuries of Moorish domination: the Koran frowns on the consumption of alcohol, but the Moors made wine and imbibed it with gusto, for "medicinal" purposes. They even introduced the technique of distilling into Spain. The Spanish word for still, alambique, is Arabic in origin, as is the English and Spanish word, "alcohol".
From the 15th century onwards, Andalusian wines were shipped to appreciative drinkers elsewhere in Europe, particularly England, where there was a great fondness for Sack (as Sherry was called) and sweet wines from Málaga. This happy situation prevailed until the 19th century when European vineyards were affected by oidium (a fungus), followed by an even more devastating plague of Phylloxera, the American vine root louse, which first appeared in Bordeaux in 1868 and spread to Jerez and Málaga 20 years later. Jerez's vineyards were replanted with plague-resistant American rootstock, but some areas never fully recovered.
Sherry
Few things can beat Sherry as a pre-meal aperitif. Ever since Sir Francis Drake ransacked the port of Cádiz in 1587 and made off with 3,000 barrels of Sherry, the British have been addicted to the stuff, and continue to be the main international clients. But they favour the so called "cream" Sherry, to which sugar or grape juice is added as a sweetener, while Spaniards prefer the bone-dry, crystal-clear fino, consumed with particular enthusiasm at feria time. Other types of Sherry include oloroso, amontillado, palo cortado, and sweet Pedro Ximenez.
Sherry can only be made in one place, the area lying between Jerez de la Frontera, Puerto de Santa María and San Lucar de Barrameda in the province of Cádiz. The secret is the combination of soil (the chalky, crumbly, moisture-retaining albariza), the damp climate which encourages the growth of the flor (a coat of yeast that forms on the aging wine and prevents it from oxidising) and the solera system used to blend the different vintages.
Within the category of dry Sherry there is Manzanilla, which is made exclusively in San Lucar de Barrameda. Some drinkers swear they can detect a hint of sea in this wine, due to the proximity of the ocean (though this is more true of the variety known as Manzanilla Pasada, which locals favour but which is rarely available elsewhere). In fact, the higher humidity in San Lucar, which is next door to the marshes of Doñana, allows the flor to flourish year round. In other areas of Jerez, the yeast often dies down with the arrival of hot dry weather. Thus, Manzanilla is even drier and paler than other Sherries.
In all there are more than 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of vineyards in the Jerez region, where the predominant grape is the Palomino, named after a 13th-century Spanish knight. Grown elsewhere, the Palomino is a singularly undistinguished grape and is prone to oxidation (darkening and spoiling), but due to the magic combination of soil and the prevailing humidity which allows the growth of the protective flor yeast, Sherry acquires its exceptional dryness and earthy aroma.
Like Port, Sherry is a "fortified" wine, meaning that extra alcohol is added to bring its alcohol content up to around 16 percent volume.
After the grapes are harvested in early September, they are crushed to make a still white wine. This ages for about two years before being put through the criadera and solera system, by which the sherries of different years are blended to ensure that the finished product is of consistent quality. Put in its simplest terms, rows of barrels are stacked in layers. A portion of wine, destined for bottling, is drawn off from the bottom row, called the "solera", which contains the oldest blend. These barrels are topped off with wine from the row immediately above, and so on to the top row of barrels, which are replenished with the most recent wine, that which has aged for a couple of years. For this reason, most Sherries are not vintage wines, being blends from different harvests. In exceptional years, some wine might be set aside for aging separately as Vintage Sherry, which is rare and correspondingly expensive.
Types of Sherry
Fino: clear and perfectly dry, with an earthy aroma of almonds, fino is served chilled as an an aperitif wine, often accompanied by nuts or tapas such as jamón serrano (cured ham). Fino sherry is best drunk shortly after bottling, so buy from a reliable source. The top selling brands are Tio Pepe (Gonzalez Byass) and La Ina (Domecq).
Manzanilla: this is the fino Sherry made in San Lucar de Barrameda. It is even drier and paler than other finos, and within Spain it outsells other dry sherries. The best known brands are La Guita (from Hijos de Rainer Perez Marin) and La Gitana (Vinícola Hidalgo). Manzanilla Pasada, favoured by locals in Sanlúcar, is slightly darker, saltier and less refined.
Oloroso: The layer of flor yeast is thin, or absent, in this Sherry as it ages, and thus there is a partial oxidation which accounts for the wine's darker colour. Oloroso is a rich amber, with an aroma of hazelnuts, and it makes an exceptional aperif, especially with cured ham. It is also one of the few wines which can stand up to such difficult-to-match foods as eggs, artichokes and asparagus. The best olorosos - that is, the oldest - include the legendary Matusalém (González Byass) .
Amontillados: Named after the wine-making town of Montilla (Córdoba), this Sherry is often described as being mid-way between a fino and an oloroso, with some of the qualities of both. It starts out the same as a fino, but the layer of flor yeast is allowed to die off. It is therefore darker in colour. The better ones can be extraordinary. Well known labels include Amontillado 51-1 (Domecq) and Amontillado del Duque (González Byass).
Palo Cortado: In Jerez, they say this is a wine that you can't make - it just happens. It starts out as a fino, but the flor yeast fails to develop. A rare treat, it has an aroma reminiscent of an amontillado, while its colour is closer to oloroso. One of the best is the 60 year old Sibarita (Domecq).
Cream Sherry: This is a big favourite among drinkers outside Spain, especially in Great Britain, Holland and Germany. It results when you take oloroso Sherry (or fino, in the case of pale cream) and sweeten it. This is traditionally done by mixing in a measure of Pedro Ximenez, a naturally sweet wine, but many creams are made with fructose or grape concentrate. It makes an interesting dessert wine, and is a good companion for pâtés. The best selling brands are Harvey's Bristol Cream and Crofts.
Pedro Ximenez, or PX: This naturally sweet wine is named after the grape variety, which is widely grown in other Andalusian wine regions. At worst it can be overly sweet and cloying, but when made and aged with care (factors which are reflected in the price) it is elegant and velvety, great with dessert and even better on its own. Gran Orden PX from Garveys is considered one of the best wines in Spain.
Brandy de Jerez: Jerez produces 90 percent of the brandy in Spain. It is made by aging wine spirits in casks which have previously been used to age Sherry. The spirits are not made from grapes grown in Jerez, but come from other regions, especially Extremadura, La Mancha and neighbouring Huelva. It is sweeter and more caramelised than French brandy, syrupy if of the basic variety, warm and mouth-filling at its best. Price is a good indicator of quality.
Winery Tours
Tours of Jerez wineries are usually available on weekday mornings (except during August), although some cellars also open for weekend visits. Most wineries charge a token fee of around 3 euro.
Each bodega has it legends and its special charm. Most cellars welcome visitors, and constitute the main tourist attraction in the town of Jerez. The Gonzalez Byass winery alone has some 100,000 visitors a year.
A typical visit goes something like this: first, you watch a short film or audio-visual show. Next, a guide leads you through the rows upon rows of casks – many of them signed by illustrious visitors in the past – explaining the criadera and solera system used to blend different vintages, and the difference between the dry finos, amontillados and olorosos. The tour ends in the sacristía – the "sacristy" – with a tasting of the various wines, expertly drawn from the barrel by the venenciador, using a cup attached to a slender rod.
Visiting a wine cellar in Jerez is the ultimate interactive learning experience. Visit three, and you’re an expert. Visit six, and you come away with the feeling that there is an awful lot more to learn about Sherry.
The Gonzalez Byass and Domecq complexes resemble cities in miniature. Their citizens are the tens of thousands of old oak Sherry butts that repose in the vast cellars, each containing 500 litres. Everything is designed to keep that vital flor yeast happy. High vaulted ceilings keep summer temperatures down, the windows are oriented to the westerly winds to ensure good ventilation, the cellars are hosed down regularly. Even the lush gardens which surround the wineries owe more to a need to maintain the proper microclimate than to a bent for botany.
At González Byass, you can view such hallowed cellars as Los Apósteles and La Constancia. You might even catch a glimpse of the famous Sherry-sipping mice, which have returned after a few years’ absence following some repair work in the cellar (a glass and a miniature ladder are set out for their indulgence). You will learn how a cask from the private supply of dry Sherry kept by José de la Peña, the winery founder’s uncle, was shipped to England, giving birth to a legend: Tío Pepe, the best-selling aperitif wine in the world.
Next door, at Domecq – at 269 years the oldest winery in Jerez – they’ll tell you about how an undelivered shipment of wine spirits originally destined for Holland was left to mellow in old Sherry casks and metamorphosed into the first Jerez Brandy in 1874: Fundador. You’ll also see the touching memorial to the late José Ignacio Domecq (known to all as "The Nose"), who was armed with a formidable proboscis and an uncanny knack for using it. No one could sniff out the qualities of a wine better than he.
Málaga
Málaga has long been famous for its sweet wines, made from the Moscatel and Pedro Ximenez varieties. The Romans, the Moors and later the British were all enthusiastic drinkers of wines of Málaga. But Málaga suffered severely from the various vine-threatening plagues of the 19th century, and the switch in international tastes towards dry wine sent the region into decline. Today a handful of wineries keep alive the tradition, and the region is making a comeback thanks to the new, more sophisticated sweet white wines now being introduced.
The defining factor of wines designated as "Málaga" is that they are aged in the city of Málaga, but the grapes are grown, pressed and often fermented in other parts of the province. In fact, there are three different grape-growing zones. The westernmost is centred around the village of Manilva where, as it is closer to the Atlantic, the more humid weather and richer soil results in Moscatel grapes which can swell to an enormous size without losing their wonderful sweetness. Thus, most of the crop is more profitably destined for eating as table grapes.
At the opposite end of the province, in the Axarquía, the predominant variety is also the Moscatel, growing on picturesque terraced vineyards which defy the use of mechanical means for cultivation and harvesting. Ninety percent of the crop is laid out in open-air beds to dry in the sun, becoming the famous raisins of Málaga.
It is the third area which produces most of Málaga's wine. This inland zone lies north of Antequera, and due to the extremes in temperature (with scorchingly hot summers and often freezing winters) the grapes develop the character needed for a fine wine. The predominant variety here is the Pedro Ximenez, which is named after a 17th-century Spanish soldier thought to have introduced it from Germany. It has an exceptionally high sugar content, which is made even higher thanks to the process of letting the grapes roast in the sun before pressing, which reduces their moisture and concentrates the sugar. This partial raisining accounts for traditional Málaga wine's dark colour, for the Moscatel and Pedro Ximenez are both in fact white grapes.
The wine is then aged and the vintages blended following the same solera system used in Jerez for Sherry. The longer the wine has spent making the rounds of the solera barrels, the better it is. Now, thanks to modern enology and the introduction of cold-fermentation methods, the region is making some exceptional sweet white Pedro Ximenez wines. These full-flavoured wines can stand up to the best Sauternes, and nothing can beat them as the perfect companion for pâté. The best ones are Cartojal from Lopez Hermanos and Carpe Diem from Tierras de Mollina, while the best-selling brand of classical Málaga wine is Málaga Virgen from López Hermanos.
Montilla-Moriles
Montilla-Moriles, located in the south of Córdoba province, is another of the historical wine regions of Spain. The wine here has certain similarities with the Sherry of Jerez, but usually has suffered from the comparison. Montilla's dry finos have always been considered rougher than the equivalent Sherry, usually for lack of care in the wine-making process (though a good Montilla can be as fine as a good Sherry). Furthermore, in the past much of the region's production of Pedro Ximenez, the predominant grape in Montilla, was shipped to Jerez to sweeten their cream Sherries.
Now the dozen or so wineries in the region are trying to make up for lost time and establish a name for themselves.
These days it is hard to talk to anyone in Montilla without coming, sooner or later, to the subject of the comparative virtues of Montilla wine as opposed to Sherry. As with Sherry, the flor yeast intervenes in the process, and the same solera system is used to blend the different vintages. The major distinguishing factor is the grape variety used. While the Palomino grape is used for Sherry, most Montilla is made from Pedro Ximenez, which has a much higher sugar content and therefore gives wines with a naturally higher alcohol content, up to 16 percent volume. This means that, unlike Sherry, Montilla is not fortified with the addition of extra alcohol, and locals claim that as a result it does not give you a hangover.
The biggest and oldest winery in the area is Alvear, which can trace its origins back to 1729. They make the best-selling dry fino C.B. Alvear and other wineries in Montilla-Moriles also make interesting olorosos, amontillados and sweet wines which are well worth seeking out. In 1999 Alvear's Pedro Ximenez 1830 was voted by Spanish critics as the best wine in Spain.
El Condado de Huelva
Columbus set forth for his historical voyage from the port of Palos, in the western Andalusian province of Huelva. The navigator took with him his dreams of discovery. His crew, who came from Palos and neighbouring Moguer, took more practical things, such as dried tuna, legumes and, of course, a good supply of Huelva wine. Thus, Huelva's wines were the first Spanish wines to be exported to America (assuming, of course, that the sailors didn't drink it all along the way).
Huelva's wines are made with the Zalema, the indigenous white grape of the region. Traditionally it is used to make an amber-coloured oloroso-style fortified wine, Condado Viejo, an earthy, nutty, mouthfilling wine which goes well with the famous hams of the Huelva sierras. But living in the shadow of Jerez, this wine region seemed forever condemned to play second fiddle to its mighty neighbour. Many wineries went out of business, and those growers with good land switched to strawberries, now the major cash crop in the region.
Today, thanks to modern wine making technology, Huelva's wine trade is making a comeback, as wineries have started to produce unaged table whites from the Zalema grape. Well chilled, these wines - fresh, light, although a bit thin and not particularly flavourful - go very well with the local seafood. The best known brands are Castillo de Andrade (Bodegas Andrade) and Viña Odiel (Sovicosa).
There is even one winery, the Cooperativa Nuestra Señora del Rocío in Almonte, which have taken the concept one step further. They connected a series of large undeground fermenting vats to form a subterranean cellar, where they make Andalusia's only sparking wine, Raigal.
Other wines from Andalusia
Although the region's best known labels come from Andalusia's four historical Denominaciones de Origen, there is hardly a place in southern Spain that doesn't make wine, but most of it is simple, unaged wine destined for local consumption, such as the heady Vino de la Costa produced in the south of Granada province.
There are, however, some interesting developments taking place independently of the traditional Denominaciónes. In the past, old fashioned wine-making methods meant it was almost impossible to make table wines of any quality in the hot Andalusian climate, but thanks to temperature-controlled fermentation methods this is now feasible. Thus, the Barbadillo winery in Sanlúcar was able to introduce a still white wine made from the normally difficult Palomino grape. It is called Castillo de Sandiego - although most people know it simply as Barbadillo - and it is today the best-selling table white in the region.
The most exciting developments involve introduced varieties that traditionally were not grown in southern Spain, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz and the Spanish grape Tempranillo. Interesting wines are being produced by the Villagran winery in Granada (although production is still small) and Paez Morilla in Arcos de la Frontera (Cádiz), while the biggest success story is Cortijo de las Monjas in Ronda, an estate owned by Alfonso von Hohenlohe, founder of the Marbella Club. With the aid of a top French-trained enologist, the estate is producing excellent wines combining Tempranillo with French varieties, under the label Príncipe Alfonso.
Herein could lie the future of Andalusian wine making. The regional government has initiated a scheme whereby several hectares of experimental vineyards in each of Andalusia's eight provinces have been planted with a number of different varieties, to see which ones respond best to the local environment. Stay tuned for developments.
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