Everywhere: Articles: Spanish wineries seek Savoir Faire from California

pouring Spanish Wine by ruth carlson

By: Frankie Israelson

Spain, one of the oldest, largest and most traditional wine producers in the world, is turning to the California for advice on wine tourism. The new wine tasting rooms popping up in Los Gatos and Saratoga are being copied in the Rioja and Madrid regions. “The Santa Cruz Mountains and Napa Valley have the latest technology and most importantly knows how to market wine,” says Daniel García Pita, owner of Finca El Regajal winery near Madrid, who visits California annually. “In Spain we have tradition, but no savoir faire,” says Pita. ‘I visit California to learn about merchandising.”

Wine tourism is a new concept for Spain and one they are embracing by opening their wineries (called bodegas) to tours and adding tasting rooms. The Spanish government has approved a $133 million budget to promote viticulture, which includes developing 17 wine routes throughout the country. The Universidad de La Rioja responded to the growing number of careers in this new field by creating a master’s degree in wine tourism.

Spain has the largest amount of land devoted to vineyards in the world but since the European Union began controlling the amount of wine the country can sell, oenologists are now favoring quality over quantity and learning how to distinguish their wines from the worldwide competition.

“Our oenologist came back from California so excited, saying we must do this and do that, until we had to tell him to slow down,” says Esteban, public relations director for Ysios winery in La Guardia. “Not long ago if you knocked on the door of a winery in Spain, they wouldn’t let you in. Now everyone is constructing unusual buildings designed to encourage visitors.“

Ysios was one of the first. Designed by famed Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, creator of the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, Ysios resembles a cave built into the hillside. The winery is named for the Egyptian goddess, Isis, who watched over the process of transforming grapes into wine. “The wine is like the building, modern,” said Amaya. “You have to open your mind to try a modern wine.”

Just up the road, Hotel Marqués De Riscal opened the first vinotherapy spa in Spain a year ago. Guests can enjoy treatments using wine and grape extracts when they are not busy visiting the wine museum, restaurant or relaxing in one of the 43 luxurious rooms.

Designed by Frank O. Gehry, the hotel is easy to spot from the road. The rooftop has titanium streamers stained to reflect the colors of a wine bottle: silver represents the foil, gold for the netting that covers it and pink for the wine itself. Gehry also designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which transformed that dying industrial city into a tourist Mecca. “There was a before the Guggenheim and an after,” said Daniel Garcia, owner and chef of Zortziko in Bilbao, which just received a Michelin star. LaGuardia residents are hoping the Gehry hotel will do the same for the Rioja region.

In the Sierre Norte region, near Madrid, boutique wineries are making a name for themselves by returning to agriculture techniques used since the 13th century Muslim era. D Arren, believed to be the first all-female run winery in Spain, “…gives women an opportunity to work in the countryside,” says Monica Druet Gerente, manager. “Agriculture in Spain is a man’s world and our mission is to produce quality organic wine, but more importantly, to allow locals to stay in this small town.”

In the 1960’s the majority of young people fled villages to work in Madrid. Wineries are seen as one way to revive these ghost towns by providing a living for local farmers and wine makers. The town hall is investing in the winery, which is purposefully kept small to control the quality. “In the beginning it was hard for the women to convince the men that it was better to use fewer grapes of better quality, because the men were so used to making the largest amount of wine possible,” says Gerente. D Arren succeeded in part by paying the growers top prices for their grapes. Their red wine retails for a higher price because it is organic and handmade and any profits are reinvested in the company.

Ana Saldana Varela also complained about initial resistance from men when she created her tour company, Viavinum. Believed to be the first in Spain, this new firm takes small groups to visit wineries near Madrid, sometimes allowing visitors to take part in the harvest. “Wine tours and tastings are a new concept in Spain,” says Varela. “Not very many people are doing it and at first the male winery owners didn’t want to open their doors to tourists.” One bodega owner who embraced the concept immediately was Daniel García Pita, owner of Finca El Regajal winery. Its location, in a rare butterfly preserve, was the inspiration for the bottle’s logo.

Now in its 6th year of operation, Finca El Regajal produced 25,000 bottles of syrah, merlot and cabernet last year and is planning on releasing 40,000 bottles next year. Currently visitors sample wine in Daniel’s living room, but his future plans include constructing an outdoor patio and formal tasting room. Food will also be involved, since gastronomy and winemaking go hand in hand in Spain. Wine is consumed at lunch and dinner which both stretch for hours over numerous courses.

If the Spanish can appreciate California’s showmanship, perhaps we can learn about the importance of tradition from them. “In America, the being gets lost in the doing,” says Ana Ramiro with the Spanish tourism office, (www.spain.info). She explains that the expression means we’re too busy accomplishing things to enjoy life. I took her advice and relaxed over a three hour tasting menu at La Favorite. A former family home, this Michelin one-star restaurant had calamari that melted in my mouth, accompanied by Rioja. If the wine makers are going to take their time making a quality product, it only seems fair that we take our time sipping the wine.

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Official government tourist site

www.spain.info

WWW.OKSPAIN.ORG

losangeles@tourspain.es

TEL: (323) 658 7188

Ysios Bodega

Website: www.domecqbodegas.com

Address: Camino de la Hoya, s/n,

01300 Laguardia

Tel: +34 945 600 640

Hotel Marqués De Riscal: