Without a doubt, the new Spanish wine is committed to ecology, biodynamics, regenerative agriculture and minimal intervention. There is a return to a past without herbicides or pesticides or to the minimization of the addition of sulfides. The so-called natural wine has found a prominent niche in the market. There are even establishments and distributors that have specialized in these wines. Some have even recovered animal traction to work their vineyards.
At the same time, the big bet is on resilient native varieties. Familia Torres was one of the pioneers in recovering the ancestral varieties that were being lost to oblivion. 40 years ago he began his ambitious project to learn about Catalonia’s wine heritage from before the arrival of the devastating phylloxera plague, and with which today they say they can adapt to climate change.
The focus is also placed on expressing the fruit and not the aging in wood while elaborations with ceramic jars, demijohns, granite or concrete tanks, and even with polyethylene eggs suitable for food use become widespread. They are looking for less alcoholic and more drinkable and enjoyable wines. The vineyards of the new Spanish wine are also rising, seeking higher altitudes with which to counteract the effects of climate change. The effects of the climate emergency on the vineyards are of great concern.
At the same time, projects outside the denominations of origin are growing, seeking greater creative freedom and fewer restrictions (which has the administrations and institutions of the sector concerned).
These are times when less is more. Even the most classic wines are adapting to new trends and new tastes. Meanwhile, Spanish white wine continues to grow, in volume and prestige. There is a white revolution in a country that has historically been tintocentric. There are already two high-level Spanish whites that have achieved the much-desired 100 points awarded by what is considered the most prestigious wine publication on the planet: The Wine Advocate (popularly known as the Parker guide).
The first Spanish white to achieve this was the Riojan Castillo Ygay 1986 by Marqués de Murrieta (a historical gem). The second Spanish white wine awarded with 100 Parker points was the Galician O Soro 2020 by Rafael Palacios, a sensational godello protected by the DO Valdeorras.
Taking the historical evolution, since 2008, the production of white wines points to a positive trend. Since 2013, the volume generated from this type of wine has been above 16 million hectoliters, according to the Spanish Wine Interprofessional (OIVE). At the same time, artificial intelligence or blockchain technology have already become a tool to improve the quality of Spanish vineyards and wines.
And all of this is reflected in the selection of ten new wines that the Magazine proposes for the Christmas holidays. We travel from Penedès, Priorat or Les Garrigues to Rioja or Ribera del Duero passing through Ourense, Murcia and Cádiz. The selection of these quality wines has been designed for all budgets, between 11 and 259 euros. There are classic ones and also daring ones, with a great preeminence of native grape varieties that clearly show the new winds blowing in Spanish wine.
Bodega Tesalia is the first winery in Spain to launch a varietal magnum exclusively in NFT (digital works or products that can be bought and sold like any other property), with 150 limited edition bottles numbered with blockchain technology. It is an exclusive limited edition for the crypto market of a Cabernet Sauvingnon wine from Arcos de la Frontera from the 2022 harvest, being the first varietal from Thessaly to hit the market. It is a magnum that will not be marketed until next February. The Golding Family – the horsewoman Natalia Golding, daughter of businessman Richard Golding, has been exchanging horses for the world of wine – affirms that it is “a wine that will be mythical, and an exclusive jewel in the cryptocurrency market.”
With NFT technology, buyers become owners of a digital twin of the MITO NFT, while the physical magnum bottles remain stored in a secure warehouse even if there are transactions or exchanges of the NFT. This is an innovative approach, whose objective is to “limit the carbon footprint and preserve the quality of the bottles, preserved in the winery, in addition to offering an exclusive wine from the vineyard to the bottle.”
There is no shortage of people who partner with fashion to present special Christmas editions. This is the case of the riverside winery Conde de San Cristóbal, which has partnered with the Madrid men’s fashion brand Oteyza.
And wine and perfume also seek alliances. The Barcelona-based Almah Parfums 1948, an expert in niche fragrances, has created, together with the Priorat winery Clos de l’Obac (Gratallops), two perfumes inspired by the red wine Obac and the white Kyrie. These perfumes, according to Jordi Magrans, master perfumer at Almah, are like aging wines. He argues that “they get better after a while of settling into your skin and your clothes. They adapt to you and integrate into your personality.” Jordi Magrans calls them storage perfumes, since “like wines, you can have them in the bottle and they evolve without losing the essence with which they were created, making them perfect for daily use, on special occasions and are the object of desire of collectors.” ”.
