Emergent Spanish wine regions: The Balearic Islands

Pedro Ballesteros Torres, in a 2/2/18 Decanter article on Spanish wine trends, wrote about newly emergent wine regions, areas propelled by the aggregated effects of:

• Developments in viticulture and oenology
• Climate change
• A resurgence of the perennial value of indigenous varieties
• A market eager to reward niche identities.

The regions identified by Torres as emergent are illustrated in the map below.

Emergent Spanish wine regions

I will provide a brief overview of each of these regions, including the reasons why they are considered emergent, in a series of blog posts beginning today with the Balearic Islands.

The Balearic Islands, the autonomous division of Spain located off its east coast, are, due to their excellent climate, sandy beaches, and natural beauty, one of Europe's most popular holiday destinations.

The Balearic Islands (Source: Wikipedia)

But wines are also made there, with Mallorca, the largest of the islands, the source of one of the Cutting Edge Wines discussed in a previous post..

Winemaking in the Balearic Islands has a very long history, a history which was upended by the onset of Phylloxera. The ravages of the French vineyards meant that they had to look to other sources for fruit; and grape-growing in the Balearics expanded rapidly to meet this new demand. Balearic Island vineyards were decimated when the louse made landfall in the islands in 1891, causing a widespread shift to non-vine agricultural crops among the growers.

Even the resolution of the phylloxera issue did not result in a return to grape-growing in the Balearics; instead, grapes were grown only for local consumption. In the 1990s, however, a number of local winemakers decided to improve the quality of wine produced in the islands (Catavino) and, in furtherance of that goal: planted international varieties to complement the local varieties; enhanced irrigation systems; and introduced stainless steel and oak barrels for fermentation and aging.

Grapes are grown on all three of the Balearic Islands but the most vinously significant is Mallorca. The chart below shows the distribution of appellations among the islands and illustrates that the only regional DOs are in Mallorca.

There are a number of reasons why these islands can be considered as emergent (Cellartours.com):

• International varieties now appear with increasing frequency across the islands' vineyards
• Fresher, more aromatic whites are now the mainstay of production
• A new generation of winemakers are bringing a sense of the importance of terroir to wines and winemaking and are utilizing their best sites to produce wines of class and quality
• The wines have moved beyond the local tourist market and have begun to make waves on the Spanish mainland.

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The regions identified as emergent by Torres in his initial article are:

• Balearic Islands
• Utiel-Requena DO
• Galicia
• Bierzo
• The Canary Islands
• Penedès
• Alicante
• Empordà
• Jumilla
• Sierra de Gredos
• Arribes DO
• Aragon

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