Monday 8 August 2016

Surge in Spanish Wine Expected for 2016


Surge in Spanish Wine Expected for 2016

While Spanish wine can be found on most tables in the world a lot of Spanish wine ends up bottled and labelled as being from Italy or France.
Spain's wine regions are some of the best in the world

https://costadelsolpropertygroup.com/Climate-spain.phpIf Spain wasn’t already thought of as a heaven on Earth with their superb beaches, wonderful climate, healthy Mediterranean diet and stunning cities and landscapes then throwing in that Spain is the largest producer of wine in the world will definitely seal the deal.

Data released this week shows that Spain is set for one of their biggest years for wine production with Spain set to make over 50 million hectolitres of wine this year. Don’t worry if you’re not sure what a hectolitre is. To put it simply one hectolitre is the same as 100 litres.

So that makes 50 million hectolitres a heck of a lot of wine.

But why is Spain producing so much wine? It’s believed by the associates and bodies of grape growers and wineries in Spain that the September harvest will be a particularly bountiful one. It’s even being suggested that there could be enough grapes harvested to surpass the old 52.5 million hectolitre record set a few years ago in 2013.

The relatively mild and wet winter and spring, followed by the intense heat of the summer, has led to a great crop this year. There has also been very little crop disease in Spain this year outside of a few incidents of mildew and other problems in Huelva, Galicia and Jerez. The majority of the wine will be coming from the hinterlands of Castilla-La Mancha however and the conditions there are said to be great for wine.

The Castilla-La Mancha isn’t the only place expecting a bumper crop though. Extremadura, Valencia, Ribera del Duero and La Rioja are also expecting great crop numbers.

The boost has also been helped by an increase in how many grapes are being grown overall. The demand for Spanish wine is on the up and wineries are responding by growing more grapes. While the domestic demand for Spanish wine is around 10 million hectolitres there’s little doubt that the increase in foreign demand could see well over 50 million hectolitres produced this year.

Another reason for the increase in Spanish production is that around half of all the wine Spain produces goes to wineries in France and Italy. The wine is then mixed with the wine in these countries and labelled as wine from there to sate the demands of people who still insist that the best wine is French and Italian; not even realising they’re purchasing Spanish!

Spain is still happy with this though because it means that almost all the wine made in Spain gets sold even if it isn’t labelled as Spanish wine. Even though Spain can’t officially take the credit for it everyone the world over is enjoying some of the best wine in the country; whether they realise it or not.