'Spanish Winemaking'

Spanish wineries are known as "bodegas" and the winemakers, "bodegueros". The Spanish winemakers make their products from a large variety of grapes. It's not unusual to find the typical Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and so forth, but the majority of the wines are produced from native grapes, many completely unknown outside the Iberian peninsula.

The methods used by the "bodegueros" are of course based on the same "technology" used in other wine producing areas, but the differences in technique, storage and aging methods, etc., produce some interesting and often pleasantly distinct wines.

Important factors in the production of wine are:

The soil, because the plant is capable of perforating its roots very deep, if the soil permits it. There it finds certain nutrients and a constant availability of water, permitting it to withstand the rigours of summertime.
The orientation and inclination of the soil, which affects the isolation and consequently the maturation of the grapes.
The climate influences in a crucial way, because the wine producer fears the spring frosts, extreme droughts and the late rains, just before harvest, complicating the maturation and causing diseases. These factors gives origin to the concept of “añada” (production years).
The human intervention is indispensable: the best grape turns into the worst vinegar if man does not orient, direct and control the transformation happening in the fermentation and development of the wine. Man participates in the productive labours (pruning, treatments, management, clearance of weeds...) as well as in elaboration.. However, 90% of the wine is influenced by the grape.
The wine comes from the fermentation by yeasts of the sugars in the juice. These micro organisms produce alcohol and other minor substances. The two main substances in wine are water (about 85-90%) and alcohol (10-15%). It is however the minor elements in the grape or produced by the later transformations that have a major influence on the characteristics of the wine.