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WINE

IN PICS: Spain’s vineyards feel the pinch but harvest must go on

When young German Friedrich Schatz turned up in 1982 to grow grapes in a part of southern Spain which hadn't produced wine in 100 years, they thought he was crazy.

IN PICS: Spain's vineyards feel the pinch but harvest must go on
A vineyard beneath the "Tajo de Ronda" bridge in Ronda. Photos: Jorge Guerrero

But nearly four decades on, Schatz is still tending his vines in the Andalusian hilltop town of Ronda.

And despite the fact that sales have been battered by the coronavirus crisis, the harvest must go on because the land “just won't wait”.   

Located inland from the Costa del Sol, the Ronda highlands today boast more than 20 wineries and experts view it as one of the most promising regions in Spain, the world's third-largest wine producer by value after France and Italy.

Winemaking here dates back to Roman times, but it disappeared following a phylloxera epidemic, which hit Ronda in 1878, with the aphid devastating 13,000 hectares (32,123 acres) of vines.   

And it would take the arrival, more than 100 years later, of a teenager from a family of German winegrowers to turn things around.   

Schatz, who goes by the name of Federico, was barely 18 when he arrived in Ronda and fell in love with the Finca Sanguijuela, a beguiling property on three hectares of land on a gentle slope “with soil which is vibrant and very well-aerated”.   

There he planted classical varieties, such as pinot noir, merlot, petit verdot and chardonnay, and today he counts some 15,000 vines, producing premium bottles of red, white and rose from nine varieties of grape.

The harvest is all done by hand, with Schatz (pictured above) working alongside his mum, wife, daughter and three employees.


 

Vines need tending

So far, 2020 has been a difficult year, with bars and restaurants badly hit by the crisis and Schatz expecting sales to fall by up to 80 percent.   

But the vines still need tending.   

“Even if you were to tell me that tomorrow we'll all die of the virus, we'd carry on the same, because you can't stop working the fields,” says Schatz, 57.   

“You can't just abandon a vineyard like shutting down a factory.”    For those harvesting the grapes, the pandemic hasn't changed much.   

“Working in the fields is just the same,” shrugs Francisco Sanchez Campanario, as he cuts bunches of merlot grapes in the brilliant morning sunshine.

“The good thing about working in the fields is that we have a lot of space,” says Schatz's wife Raquel Elia.

“We work quite far away from each other and inside the winery we all wear masks.”

These days, they don't let visitors into the winery because they would “constantly have to disinfect it” and all tastings are held outside, Schatz says.   

The crisis has also dealt a blow to wine tourism, which has really taken off in recent years, bringing in considerable funds for many wineries.   

Gema Perez Barea, of Milamores wine tours, whose business is almost entirely dependent on foreign tourism, says she earned “nothing” for four months although things have started to ease.

“The pandemic has changed everything, now all the tourists we have are from Spain,” she says, adding that there are “far fewer visitors” however.   

An opportunity?

Globally, Spanish wine exports fell by 7.1 percent in value and 11.6 percent in volume during the first half of the year, the Spanish Wine Market Observatory (OEMV) says.

“This is a considerable and painful loss but not as serious as we had expected and we hope the market will recover in the second half,” said OEMV head Rafael del Rey.

“There is a lot of uncertainty,” admits wine expert and blogger Yolanda Hidalgo, who is based in the country's south west.

But she believes the industry is at a moment when it could “reinvent itself”: with many hotels, bars and restaurants closed or operating with limited capacity, people are “drinking more at home and buying online” which will trigger some form of “natural selection”.   

This situation will play into the hands of “reputable brands with a faithful clientele” at the expense of “emerging projects which have yet to be established” and can't rely on trade shows and fairs to build recognition.

Coming from a family that has been making wine since 1641, Schatz is optimistic about the future, knowing he's in for the long-haul.   

“Making good wine is easy, the difficult part is the first 200 years,” he grins.

By AFP's Álvaro Villalobos

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FOOD AND DRINK

Why are Spain’s Riojas often not considered fine wines?

It's one of Spain's most famous tipples, and yet there are a number of reasons why Rioja wines are widely respected but not always considered fine wines by international experts and the general public.

Why are Spain's Riojas often not considered fine wines?

Spanish Riojas are loved across Spain and around the world by wine lovers. They are known for being medium to full-bodied, with a strong structure and tannins, and are often described as tasting like berries or plums.

One thing Riojas generally aren’t generally considered, however, are fine wines in the way that other wines are.

Sure, there are some particularly fantastic and award-winning Rioja vintages that are considered world class, but generally speaking Rioja is viewed as a bit of a bargain: good quality wine but not such high quality that it becomes unaffordable.

So what is a fine wine in the first place? There isn’t an exact science but they tend to be defined as a category that represents the highest quality producers from a wine-growing region, where the highest level of winemaking and viticultural standards are implemented, and quality over quantity is prioritised. And as you might have guessed, it’s wine critics who often have the final say on which fines are fine. 

Riojas’ good value for money

According to wine experts at Enologique, in the wine world (and perhaps in the wine-glugging public imagination too), Rioja is trapped in the ‘good value’ category, meaning it is generally perceived as middle of the road, cost effective, and neither awful nor amazing.

BBC wine expert Victoria Moore sums it up nicely: “One piece of good news for those who love Rioja is that it is one of the wines that supermarkets do best. You can find excellent examples of own-label Rioja just about anywhere you might shop.”

Riojas are seen as good value for money, something that (for better or worse) prevents it being considered among the more prestigious wines by some people.

READ ALSO: Ten facts you probably didn’t know about Spanish wine

High production

Wine critic Tim Atkin argues that one reason Riojas aren’t quite viewed as in the top tier of wines is the fact that Spain’s La Rioja region makes so much vino, up to 300 million litres a year on average.

In Atkin’s words, “there’s always an unspoken fear that the mass-market wines won’t sell, even if the prices are low.”

Of the roughly 300 million litres of wine produced in La Rioja annually, up to 90 percent of it is red and the remaining 10 percent is white or rosé.

Different Riojas

Part of the explanation could also be the size of La Rioja itself and the variety of wines it produces, as although they are all marketed and sold as one type of wine, wines produced there tend to differ from one another than the best-known fine wines from France and Italy.

Rioja enjoys a mixture of Atlantic, Continental and Mediterranean climates with hot summers and cold winters with relatively high rainfall — good conditions for growing grapes that produce quality wines, but with quite a lot of variety.

The four main classifications of Riojas are Genérico, Crianza, Reserva, and Gran Reserva.

The general consensus is that Rioja business bosses favour quantity over quality for economic reasons. (Photo by CESAR MANSO / AFP)
 

Soil studies 

Another ‘black mark’ against Riojas when it comes to fine wines is, Atkin says, that the region would be taken more seriously if it published soil studies.

Despite being drank around the world, there is no authoritative report on Riojas soils, something many other wine producing regions in France and Italy do.

Business monopolies

One more reason Riojas are loved by many but not really considered fine wines is due to the business model: vested interests in the wine industry, namely the companies that make up the so-called ‘Grupo Rioja’, an association of influential and established bodegas that sells around three quarters of all Rioja wine. 

Atkin argues these groups have little interest in changing their business models because, in his words, “flogging large quantities of cheap wine at small but profitable margins suits them fine.” 

If someone wanted to try and recalibrate the production model in the region, or try and market Riojas as fine wines, they’d likely come up against the might of these established monopolies.

Wine politics

As with many things in Spain, politics (and regional identity) could also play a role. As the region is quite large, Rioja’s soils are varied. Yet despite that, most of the top wines come from the north and northwest of the region, especially from Sonsierra.

Atkins says that most of Rioja’s best wine growing areas are north of the River Ebro. As such, many of these high-quality vineyards are in the Alavesa subregion, which is not part of La Rioja region but actually part of the Basque Country.

According to wine website Decanter, there are 63,593 hectares of vineyards in the La Rioja wine making region, divided as follows: La Rioja (43,885 ha), Alava (12,934 ha) and Navarre (6,774 ha).

In recent years, wine rivalry between the Basque province of Álava and La Rioja has threatened to upend the Rioja wine world. Due to the internal politics, some Basque growers could break off from the Rioja name and brand and instead produce and label their own wines as Viñedos de Álava.

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