Spain Study Guide

The Phoenicians, one of the first great maritime trading cultures, founded the city of Gadir (modern Cádiz) on the coast of southern Spain around 1100 BCE and established the value of viticulture and wine as a commodity in Andalucía.  The wine trade of the eastern Mediterranean owes a significant debt to Phoenician ships: the grapes they carried from the Middle East to North Africa, the Mediterranean islands and the Iberian peninsula represent the genetic ancestors of some of the modern varieties of Spain.  However, the Phoenicians did not introduce viticulture in Spain, as primitive grape cultivation reaches thousands of years back in time, and wild grapes preceded mankind in the region.  Winemaking continued under the Romans, who improved on the fragile, large amphorae in use, but it remained a secondary pursuit under the conquering Moors, whose religion forbade the consumption of alcohol.  Despite the indifference of the Moors—the sale of wine was illegal, but often tolerated—Spanish wine became renowned for its strength, and found its way as a blending component into wines from France and Italy.  In 1492, Christopher Columbus and the Spanish explorers opened up a new world for Spanish trade.  Wine benefitted greatly from these related occurrences: with the law’s renewed approval, Spanish wine went forth with Spanish ships to supply the nation’s new colonies, and the inherently heavy wines were often made in a deliberately rancio style, or arrived in the West Indies that way.  Sherry wines, possibly the first vinous export to North America, became increasingly popular with the English market from the end of the 15th century onward, despite a deteriorating relationship between the two nations that culminated in