Castilla-La Mancha

Historic landscape resp. region in central Spain, described geographically as Castilia- León or as New Castilia. The region covers an area of 80.000 square kilometres, making it the third largest in Spain, after Castilia-León to the north (Old Castilia) and Andalusia to the south. La Mancha as well as the Extremadura region to the east are part of the huge Meseta inland plateau. The region was made famous primarily by author Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) and his novel „Don Quijote de la Mancha“. The huge plain with its typical windmills experiences very extreme climatic conditions, with freezing winters (temperatures down to -20° Celsius) and very dry hot summers, frequently with temperatures above 40 °C (the Moorish name „Manxa = dried land“ is very appropriate, in Spanish it translates as „the spot“). Sunshine averages more than eight hours per day, and that on 365 days a year. Rainfall is very low at an annual average of only 300 to 400 mm. The soil consists mainly of reddish-brown sand, with some islands of limestone. Vine density is very low, with 2,5 metres between the rows, and the vines are also trained low, to ensure each vine can get sufficient moisture even when condistions are dry. The unusual checkerboard pattern of the vineyards is known as marco real.

The DO La Mancha, which bears the same name as the region, makes up only a part of the total area, but with a vineyard area of 200.000 hectares it is nevertheless the largest in Spain. There have been repeated attempts to split the region up into several DO’s, but these have all failed. The vineyards of the region in total amount to 450.000 hectares, almost half the Spanish total. Other DO regions in this geographic region are Almansa, Manchuela, Méntrida, Mondéjar, Ribera del Júcar and Valdepeñas. The newly introduced highest quality classification in Spain was put into practice fort he first time here in 2003, when the two single vineyard sites Dominio de Valdepusa and Finca Elez were classified as so-called vino de pago. The region stretches from south of Madrid for almost 200 kilometres to the deep south, to the borders of Andalusia. More than three quarters of the area is planted with the white variety Airén, which is also the most widely planted wine grape variety in the world. It was planted extensively after the phylloxera disaster, as it is the ideal variety for the dry, hot climate, in which fungus dieseases are practically unknown. Mostly, the variety is used to make average white wines, as well as base wines for distilling. From the mid-1980’s, there has been a change in attitudes, towards the production of quality wines. When Spain joined the EU in 1986, it had to commit itself to uprooting around a third of its vineyard area. Other white varieties are Pardilla, Viura (Macabeo) and minuscule amounts of Chardonnay. The best wines are red wines made from Cencibel (Tempranillo), Garnacha and, more recently, also from Cabernet Sauvigon and Merlot.