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¡Vino! The History and Identity of Spanish Wine

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Karl Trybus’ ¡Vino! explores the history and identity of Spanish wine production from the mid-nineteenth century to today.

Image courtesy of interviewee. February 22, 2024

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This video video is a detailed account of a Spanish historian's journey and research into the historical and contemporary status of Spanish wine, particularly in relation to its visibility and reputation in the United States. The historian discusses the challenges of finding Spanish wine in American liquor stores and restaurants despite Spain being the world’s third-largest wine producer.

The historian reflects on why Spanish wines have been perceived as lower quality compared to French wines and addresses historical issues affecting Spanish wine exports, including competition and perceptions of quality. The research involved extensive travel throughout Spain's wine regions, including interviews with producers and visits to wineries and archives, to understand the cultural and historical context of Spanish wine production.

Tracing the history of wine in Spain back to the Venetians and discussing its evolution through significant events, including the Spanish Civil War and the impact of the Franco regime, the speaker emphasizes how wine has traditionally been a local product. The post-Franco period saw efforts to improve quality and global competitiveness in an evolving market.

The speaker also notes the influence of external factors, such as European wine plagues and the historical stigma associated with Spanish wine, which affected its reputation. Despite these challenges, the historian believes there is a rich diversity within Spanish wine regions deserving of greater exploration, encouraging a nuanced understanding of Spanish wine as a valuable and multifaceted agricultural product connected to its cultural heritage. The takeaway is an appreciation for the complexity of Spanish wine identity and its ongoing evolution.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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As a Spanish historian, I'd often traveled to Spain,

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and when I would come back to the United States,

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I would always find it hard to locate certain goods.

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Um, you know, Spanish agricultural products

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are always kind of hard to find.

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And one of the products that was really hard to find,

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and I didn't know why was wine was

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particularly Spanish wine.

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Um, I would remember going to liquor stores

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or package stores and they'd have maybe one

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or two Spanish wines in a certain area.

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Um, they definitely wouldn't have things like Sherry,

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and if they did, it would be California Sherry,

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and they would have, let's say the, the large producer Kavas

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that maybe people are familiar with.

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But I always found it strange that when I came back

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to the United States, the third largest producer of wine,

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Spain, it was hard to find their products.

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And at the same time, it was, even if you went

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to a restaurant and you wanted to get wine,

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unless it was a Spanish restaurant itself,

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maybe they would have a rioja.

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Maybe they would have an Albarino, which are kind

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of the more common exported wines.

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But it was really hard to find.

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And, you know, as a historian, I wanted to ask

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and think about why was this so difficult to find?

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Why were Spanish wines so hard

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to locate in the United States Liquor stores package stores,

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even wine shops?

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And at the same time, when people did mention Spanish wine,

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it was oftentimes mentioned with a sort of, well,

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Spanish wine is less expensive.

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It's not as good as French wine or other wines.

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And I really wanted to explore, well, why was that the case?

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Why was that the point people were asking or saying?

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The research for this project was actually very interesting.

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And there were a couple trips to Spain

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and there were the traditional sources, right,

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the traditional archival sources like the archival in Alala

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de Norris and the agricultural archives in Madrid.

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You know, these, these standard agricul, excuse me,

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these standard archives where people go

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and take out materials and look at them.

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But for a lot of this work,

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it also involved traveling throughout Spain's various

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regions, throughout the various wine regions, as many

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as I could get to in order to talk to wineries

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and talk to the producers

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and figure out what their story was.

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So it involved spending a good amount of time in

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the Catalan region right outside of Barcelona

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where Kavas produced San San Noia, as well as some

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of their still wines like, in the Lao region.

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And I was able to have really great interviews

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and sit down chats with people from Rev I Blanc

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and Torres these, you know, larger companies,

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and discuss what wine meant to them and their stories.

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Um, there also were wine museums like the vin

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in the areas in northeast Spain that I was able to go

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to and, and visit.

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Um, and also I spent a good amount of time in the EZ Region

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in southern Spain looking at, Sherry,

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which is probably one of the more misunderstood wines.

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And I was able to visit a large number

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of bodegas producers there, have some interviews

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and sit downs, and I was able to,

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use the local archives in ez, which were really great.

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Um, the nice thing was being part of this community

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of wine producers, it was nice to make friends

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and speak to people and figure out what their visions

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and views were of the products that they were producing.

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So the research was

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contacting wineries

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and saying that there's a historian who wants to come

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and talk about your local wine

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and seeing if they were available, willing to talk to me,

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willing to sit down and also contacting regional wine,

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authorities and asking if they had archival material

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that I could use.

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So it was a lot of, a lot of travel.

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I think in my first trip, if I remember correctly,

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I think it was 19 hotels over the course of seven weeks,

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simply because of going to all of these different locations

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and, and trying to get as much information as possible.

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If we say, where does wine originate in Spain,

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I think most people agree that the Venetians

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brought wine producing grapes to the region,

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and that's where wine began.

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And it has a very large and long history in Spain.

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Um, it goes through the medieval, it goes through the period

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of, moreish Spain.

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It survives under Moreish Spain, as wine, you know,

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can also be used medicinally, in some regions.

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And then following the recon keys of the reconquest,

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it becomes Spain becomes a very large producer

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of wine locally.

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And I think that that's one of the interesting stories of

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what Spanish wine is for a very long period of time.

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It's a local product. It's something

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that's produced in Spain for Spanish drinkers,

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for local drinkers in the community.

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And it's really in the period of the mid 19th century

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that there sort of becomes this interest in the government

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of Spain to start exporting

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as much wine as it can for sales.

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I think this coincides obviously with the loss

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of empire at the start of the 20th century,

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through the mid 20th century.

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Um, a lot of the political turmoil in Spain at the time,

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in the mid 19th century.

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So wine was one of those stable products.

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And when you had countries in northern Europe, like France

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and Britain with a growing bourgeoisie, it meant

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that there was a higher demand for wine.

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So this allowed the Spanish state to try

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to export as much as it could.

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And it was interesting to see that, you know,

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in this second half of the 19th century,

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suddenly the Spanish state was asking

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for wine census material, trying to figure out

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how much wine is being produced in each region,

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how much is available to sell, how much is available

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to leave the country in order to make money and profit.

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Um, but I think if we kind

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of we're talking about like wine itself as a product of,

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of Spain, once we get into the 20th century

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and you start to see things like the, the, civil war,

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right, and the rise of the Franco regime,

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and then how that folds right into the rise of World War II

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in that period from the Spanish Civil War

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through World War ii, through really most

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of the Franco regime wine production

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in Spain still continues.

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It still continues at a relatively large level,

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but politically, kind of the pariah state status

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that Spain had made it hard for the country

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to sell wine overseas.

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And it was in competition within a lot of other countries

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that were growing in their wine sales.

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And then today, I guess we'd say modern wise,

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after the transition to democracy

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for looking at the post 75 period, I think

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what Spain has done really well with its wines,

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particularly in the past 20 years, is they've become

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this unique mixture

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of very traditional practices in some locations,

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but trying new things and making new tastes,

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and trying to find new markets.

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And also, a lot of the wineries in Spain still are small.

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They're they're small producers.

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A lot of them are boutique producers,

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which I think in some countries we're not used to.

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When we look at, let's say California wines

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or Chilean wines are owned by these large conglomerates.

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So Spanish wines have been able to kind

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of use this transition to democracy as a test of what kind

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of wines they wanted to make, as well as

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where they wanted to sell them.

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When it comes to international competition

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and Spanish wine, I think that's one of the, the greatest

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concerns that came through in my research and in my book.

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Um, I start in the mid

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of the 19th century, middle of the 19th century.

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So I start around 1850s when the big concern for most

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of the wine producing world in Europe at

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that time is the arrival of plagues.

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Certain wine plagues arrive.

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So we have the arrival of Odium, which is like a a,

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an ashy white mold fungus that attacks the, the vines.

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Then there's a mildew,

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but then the really great one that comes at the end is oxa,

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which is this just horrific aphid, that takes all

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of these different forms and all the different forms,

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find a way of attacking wine grapes and, and the vines.

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And all of these are imported from the new world.

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They're imported from the United States.

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They wind up in Europe.

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So where that kind of sets the story is

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in the mid to late 19th century European

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wine producing countries begin to stop producing wine.

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There's horrific downfalls in the wine producing regions in

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France and Germany in Switzerland at first,

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especially with Odium.

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And this gives Spanish producers and opportunity,

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and in a lot of cases, they take the opportunity very,

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very quickly to start growing more wine grapes,

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start producing more wine at a much larger

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scale in the hopes

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Of well, taking advantage of the, the lack

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of wine available to sell it.

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It works for a short period of time.

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Um, but then Odium enters Spain,

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and when Odium enters Spain,

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an interesting thing occurs is it's a very,

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because it's a mold,

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because it's a fungus, it needs kind

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of a damp, moist climate.

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And this means at Central Spain, which is hot, dry,

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up in the, some places in the plateau regions,

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wineries could move their products to those regions.

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So they, they opened a whole new set

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of wineries in central Spain.

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And we see now even French producers buying land in Spain

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to start to try to grow grapes.

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Once Odium subsides things, I guess we could say kind

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of re return to normal.

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Um, but with the arrival of Oxa

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and the end of the 19th century, that's the, the big chaos.

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Um, OXA is completely devastating,

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and it means that producers, need

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to rip out their entire vineyards,

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and they need to replant all of their grapes.

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So when it becomes an international concern here is

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when there's no wine available,

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Spanish wine becomes something that is close.

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It's easily transportable.

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And with a growing population, especially those

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who can afford it in France and England

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and Germany, this means

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that more Spanish wine is gonna be sold

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in order to meet the demands.

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However, there becomes this battle of quality.

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And the French, once they begin to stabilize,

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are definitely the first to point out that Spanish wines,

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in their opinion, are dangerous

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because they're mixing in, industrial alcohol.

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They're mixing in chemicals to supposedly change the color

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and hue of the wine.

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So what we see a lot in the end of the 19th century is

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that the French are

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condemning Spanish wine at a really high rate.

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And I think that that idea that the French have said

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that Spanish wine is dangerous,

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and Spanish wine is a problem, I think that stuck

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with Spanish wine well into the 20th century.

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Um, during, once we get kind of past the World War II era,

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it, it goes into some of those things.

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I kind of previously mentioned

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that Spain enters this weird sort of pariah state.

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It's a, it's, it's a dictatorship.

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And, the, one of the farthest points of Western Europe,

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it's only usefulness if you will, some might argue, is

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that it's a politically is that it's against communism.

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So it's, it's a strong supporter against communism.

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But in like the 1950s

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and 1960s, a lot of Spanish wine is still produces bulk.

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So it's, you know, put in the barrels

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and shipped out in bulk wine.

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Um, and one of the biggest complaints that I would see over

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and over again in the literature, especially

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with countries like France, was

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that France had a secret weapon even into the 1960s,

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which was Algeria, that they were able to access reb wines

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and have them sent to France at a lower price

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with lower tariffs.

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And the Spanish producers were infuriated.

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They were absolutely infuriated

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that their wine is being skipped over.

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Um, and they would constantly make arguments that, you know,

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if we're talking about an integration of Europe, right?

12:12.165 --> 12:13.645
If we're talking about a friendly Europe,

12:14.065 --> 12:16.805
you should start purchasing, French wines.

12:17.345 --> 12:19.605
And a similar argument kind of rises in,

12:19.625 --> 12:22.485
in the British market when it comes to protections.

12:23.595 --> 12:25.975
Um, we see that there are lawsuits that begin

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to get filed over the term sherry,

12:29.225 --> 12:32.205
and the idea that if Sherry truly has

12:32.205 --> 12:34.565
to be from Juez de la Fontera, this means

12:34.565 --> 12:37.605
that when you purchase Empire Sherry,

12:37.665 --> 12:40.885
so South African Sherry Cypress, Sherry Australian,

12:40.885 --> 12:43.685
Sherry in English stores, that this is a problem,

12:44.145 --> 12:47.085
and the Spanish Sherry producers sue

12:47.085 --> 12:49.525
and they lose in British courts,

12:50.505 --> 12:53.485
and Sherry gets to be continuously sold as Empire Sherry

12:53.585 --> 12:55.365
or Sherry, which would be Spanish.

12:55.665 --> 12:58.485
So kind of internationally, the international concerns is

13:00.555 --> 13:03.625
Spain is getting beat up by particularly the French,

13:04.405 --> 13:07.465
and this is really hurting their ability to sell.

13:08.325 --> 13:12.895
Um, internally, what's an interesting idea is that

13:13.885 --> 13:15.455
wine is explicitly local.

13:15.675 --> 13:17.375
It kind of seems in the 19th century, right?

13:17.405 --> 13:19.455
Wine is produced locally, it's drank locally.

13:20.355 --> 13:23.935
And if you go back, historically wine is viewed

13:23.935 --> 13:26.295
as something necessary for the diet.

13:27.115 --> 13:30.055
Um, there's a, the translation is, you know, with wine

13:30.055 --> 13:31.255
and bread one goes on

13:31.355 --> 13:33.935
and it simply kind of states that wine and bread make a good meal.

13:34.755 --> 13:39.185
So there's this desire to have local wine

13:39.185 --> 13:40.505
because it's part of your daily diet.

13:41.725 --> 13:44.385
And I think where we start to see kind of in the 1940s,

13:44.705 --> 13:48.465
1950s in that the, the post World War II era, particularly

13:48.565 --> 13:51.025
for s Spain, and the question gets Ra raised of like,

13:51.735 --> 13:52.945
well, can we make better wine?

13:53.215 --> 13:55.185
What if, what if we tried to make good wine?

13:56.075 --> 13:59.305
Would our own population drink more,

13:59.845 --> 14:01.345
better quality wine?

14:02.125 --> 14:03.785
And could this help the economy grow?

14:03.805 --> 14:05.345
So especially in the late fifties

14:05.765 --> 14:08.625
and really in the early 1960s, we see a lot of kind

14:08.625 --> 14:12.225
of those, the syndicates, the, the Spanish,

14:13.025 --> 14:17.195
syndicates producing these adverts,

14:17.195 --> 14:20.035
producing these videos, producing these radio shows.

14:20.615 --> 14:23.435
And all of them are trying to get the people in Spain

14:23.695 --> 14:24.995
to buy Spanish wine

14:25.025 --> 14:26.755
because they want them to, if they say

14:26.755 --> 14:28.195
that they buy more Spanish wine,

14:28.215 --> 14:29.995
things will be better economically.

14:30.655 --> 14:33.555
One of the interesting things is they target, they,

14:33.555 --> 14:35.315
they explicitly say they target the housewife

14:35.665 --> 14:39.235
because in this, this marketplace of being in Mediterranean,

14:39.235 --> 14:41.715
Europe, the housewife, according to the producers

14:41.715 --> 14:43.955
of these shows, every day they go to the store.

14:44.785 --> 14:46.205
And if they go to the store every day

14:46.205 --> 14:48.285
or they go shopping every day, one of the things

14:48.285 --> 14:50.045
that should wind up in their basket at the end is,

14:50.065 --> 14:52.765
is a nice bottle of wine or a bottle of wine at least.

14:53.465 --> 14:54.765
And it was, it was interesting

14:55.005 --> 14:57.365
'cause for a lot of these syndicates, these wine

14:57.365 --> 14:58.605
and beer producing syndicates,

14:58.745 --> 15:02.045
the greatest threat they saw in the 1960s was the cocktail.

15:03.165 --> 15:04.425
And they saw this as a threat

15:04.425 --> 15:08.905
because it's at the same time when you now are beginning

15:08.925 --> 15:12.025
to get tourists from Northern Europe coming to Spain.

15:12.685 --> 15:15.865
And so even today, you know, you go to, when one goes

15:15.865 --> 15:17.905
to Spain, a gin and tonic

15:17.905 --> 15:19.025
or a whiskey,

15:19.925 --> 15:21.865
you see them a lot more on tables than you

15:21.865 --> 15:22.985
do, than you do wine.

15:23.535 --> 15:25.025
Well, I hope they take away the idea that

15:26.465 --> 15:30.295
Spain is a good producer of wine, first and foremost,

15:30.435 --> 15:32.055
and there's a really strong historical

15:32.055 --> 15:33.335
connection to wine in Spain.

15:34.075 --> 15:37.095
Um, yes, my work starts in the 19th century,

15:37.475 --> 15:39.935
but I do bring up some of those issues of nutrition

15:39.955 --> 15:42.455
and food from previous centuries.

15:43.475 --> 15:45.655
So for one, it's the idea that Spain

15:45.655 --> 15:47.895
and wine are very well connected

15:47.915 --> 15:51.105
and that it, Spain is going to continue to produce a lot

15:51.105 --> 15:52.745
of wine, and it has produced a lot of wine.

15:52.745 --> 15:54.425
So that, that's one of the things that, things

15:54.575 --> 15:57.185
that I think is important, to take out.

15:57.765 --> 16:01.785
Um, another is that it's not as simple to think about how a

16:02.815 --> 16:04.865
product gets its identity.

16:05.765 --> 16:10.305
Um, you know, the idea that Spanish wine is

16:12.335 --> 16:13.965
still having issues on the market.

16:14.215 --> 16:15.805
These, these are long DeRay

16:15.875 --> 16:17.605
conversations and long dere issues.

16:17.615 --> 16:20.245
These go back to the French complaining about its quality,

16:20.245 --> 16:21.445
calling it dangerous.

16:21.745 --> 16:24.605
And there was, there are, even in instances of

16:25.195 --> 16:29.335
British doctors calling Sherry dangerous, it takes a while

16:29.335 --> 16:31.375
for that to get out of the system, right?

16:31.395 --> 16:33.215
To think about wine, especially Spanish

16:33.215 --> 16:34.415
wine as not being dangerous.

16:34.915 --> 16:38.455
Um, and also to think about all of the players

16:38.725 --> 16:41.375
that are involved in giving a product,

16:41.675 --> 16:44.215
any agricultural product, any food product, its identity,

16:44.665 --> 16:46.695
everything from the producers.

16:47.665 --> 16:50.565
And you think of this as the people who sell it, the people

16:50.565 --> 16:52.165
who advertise at government agencies

16:52.165 --> 16:54.245
that are interested in moving it, where it goes,

16:54.595 --> 16:56.485
what happens when it is shipped somewhere else.

16:56.905 --> 16:59.325
And then finally, all the way down to the store,

16:59.345 --> 17:01.965
is the store willing to sell a particular type of wine

17:01.985 --> 17:03.205
or a particular type of product?

17:03.745 --> 17:06.965
And then at the end, does the consumer buy it so

17:06.965 --> 17:09.805
that the identity of Spanish wine, it's, it's a road.

17:09.955 --> 17:11.725
It's, it's the best laid plans, right?

17:11.745 --> 17:14.205
And sometimes they, they don't always work the

17:14.205 --> 17:15.285
way one wants them to work.

17:15.745 --> 17:18.485
So that creates all of these new identity questions.

17:18.545 --> 17:20.365
And I, I think probably the last ones

17:21.105 --> 17:24.245
to think about is just the diversity then of the regions

17:24.245 --> 17:26.965
of Spanish wine that, you know,

17:26.965 --> 17:28.365
when people say Spanish wine,

17:28.365 --> 17:31.725
oftentimes in their mind they think rioja, they think those,

17:31.815 --> 17:35.725
those hardy reds from the central part of the country,

17:35.945 --> 17:37.605
and there's a lot more to Spanish wine

17:37.605 --> 17:38.685
than just that one region.

17:40.195 --> 17:44.255
So hopefully what my work kind of leaves people

17:44.255 --> 17:46.135
with is an understanding that you have this,

17:46.535 --> 17:48.895
a multi-regional, multi-dimensional producer of

17:48.965 --> 17:50.565
Wine, that they're producing all of different things

17:50.585 --> 17:52.165
and they're, they're trying to do

17:52.635 --> 17:54.485
what they can based upon both internal

17:54.545 --> 17:55.885
and external concerns,

17:57.305 --> 17:59.525
and hopefully that someone else will come along

17:59.545 --> 18:01.805
and start looking at the regions more specifically

18:01.805 --> 18:05.925
and kind of digging more, more closely at, at each region

18:05.945 --> 18:06.605
of the country.

Challenges in Finding Spanish Wine in America

00:00:00 - As a Spanish historian, I'd often traveled to Spain, and when I would come back to the United States, I would always find it hard to locate certain goods. you know, Spanish agricultural products are always kind of hard to find. And one of the products that was really hard to find, and I didn't know why was wine was particularly Spanish wine. I would remember going to liquor stores or package stores and they'd have maybe one or two Spanish wines in a certain area. they definitely wouldn't have things like Sherry,
00:00:36 - and they would have, let's say the, the large producer Kavas that maybe people are familiar with. But I always found it strange that when I came back to the United States, the third largest producer of wine, Spain, it was hard to find their products. And at the same time, it was, even if you went to a restaurant and you wanted to get wine, unless it was a Spanish restaurant itself, maybe they would have a rioja. Maybe they would have an Albarino, which are kind
00:01:06 - But it was really hard to find. And, you know, as a historian, I wanted to ask and think about why was this so difficult to find? Why were Spanish wines so hard to locate in the United States Liquor stores package stores, even wine shops? And at the same time, when people did mention Spanish wine, it was oftentimes mentioned with a sort of, well, Spanish wine is less expensive. It's not as good as French wine or other wines.
00:01:39 - Why was that the point people were asking or saying? The research for this project was actually very interesting. And there were a couple trips to Spain and there were the traditional sources, right, the traditional archival sources like the archival in Alala de Norris and the agricultural archives in Madrid. You know, these, these standard agricul, excuse me, these standard archives where people go
00:02:08 - But for a lot of this work, it also involved traveling throughout Spain's various regions, throughout the various wine regions, as many as I could get to in order to talk to wineries and talk to the producers and figure out what their story was. So it involved spending a good amount of time in the Catalan region right outside of Barcelona where Kavas produced San San Noia, as well as some of their still wines like, in the Lao region.
00:02:41 - and sit down chats with people from Rev I Blanc and Torres these, you know, larger companies, and discuss what wine meant to them and their stories. there also were wine museums like the vin in the areas in northeast Spain that I was able to go to and, and visit. and also I spent a good amount of time in the EZ Region in southern Spain looking at, Sherry,

Exploring Spain's Wine Production History

00:03:10 - And I was able to visit a large number of bodegas producers there, have some interviews and sit downs, and I was able to, use the local archives in ez, which were really great. the nice thing was being part of this community of wine producers, it was nice to make friends and speak to people and figure out what their visions and views were of the products that they were producing. So the research was contacting wineries
00:03:42 - and talk about your local wine and seeing if they were available, willing to talk to me, willing to sit down and also contacting regional wine, authorities and asking if they had archival material that I could use. So it was a lot of, a lot of travel. I think in my first trip, if I remember correctly, I think it was 19 hotels over the course of seven weeks, simply because of going to all of these different locations and, and trying to get as much information as possible.
00:04:14 - I think most people agree that the Venetians brought wine producing grapes to the region, and that's where wine began. And it has a very large and long history in Spain. it goes through the medieval, it goes through the period of, moreish Spain. It survives under Moreish Spain, as wine, you know, can also be used medicinally, in some regions. And then following the recon keys of the reconquest,
00:04:44 - of wine locally. And I think that that's one of the interesting stories of what Spanish wine is for a very long period of time. It's a local product. It's something that's produced in Spain for Spanish drinkers, for local drinkers in the community. And it's really in the period of the mid 19th century that there sort of becomes this interest in the government of Spain to start exporting as much wine as it can for sales. I think this coincides obviously with the loss
00:05:14 - through the mid 20th century. a lot of the political turmoil in Spain at the time, in the mid 19th century. So wine was one of those stable products. And when you had countries in northern Europe, like France and Britain with a growing bourgeoisie, it meant that there was a higher demand for wine. So this allowed the Spanish state to try to export as much as it could. And it was interesting to see that, you know, in this second half of the 19th century, suddenly the Spanish state was asking
00:05:46 - how much wine is being produced in each region, how much is available to sell, how much is available to leave the country in order to make money and profit. but I think if we kind of we're talking about like wine itself as a product of, of Spain, once we get into the 20th century and you start to see things like the, the, civil war, right, and the rise of the Franco regime, and then how that folds right into the rise of World War II in that period from the Spanish Civil War

Challenges and Evolution of Spanish Wine Production

00:06:16 - of the Franco regime wine production in Spain still continues. It still continues at a relatively large level, but politically, kind of the pariah state status that Spain had made it hard for the country to sell wine overseas. And it was in competition within a lot of other countries that were growing in their wine sales. And then today, I guess we'd say modern wise, after the transition to democracy for looking at the post 75 period, I think what Spain has done really well with its wines,
00:06:49 - this unique mixture of very traditional practices in some locations, but trying new things and making new tastes, and trying to find new markets. And also, a lot of the wineries in Spain still are small. They're they're small producers. A lot of them are boutique producers, which I think in some countries we're not used to. When we look at, let's say California wines or Chilean wines are owned by these large conglomerates. So Spanish wines have been able to kind
00:07:21 - of wines they wanted to make, as well as where they wanted to sell them. When it comes to international competition and Spanish wine, I think that's one of the, the greatest concerns that came through in my research and in my book. I start in the mid of the 19th century, middle of the 19th century. So I start around 1850s when the big concern for most of the wine producing world in Europe at that time is the arrival of plagues.
00:07:50 - So we have the arrival of Odium, which is like a a, an ashy white mold fungus that attacks the, the vines. Then there's a mildew, but then the really great one that comes at the end is oxa, which is this just horrific aphid, that takes all of these different forms and all the different forms, find a way of attacking wine grapes and, and the vines. And all of these are imported from the new world. They're imported from the United States. They wind up in Europe.
00:08:24 - in the mid to late 19th century European wine producing countries begin to stop producing wine. There's horrific downfalls in the wine producing regions in France and Germany in Switzerland at first, especially with Odium. And this gives Spanish producers and opportunity, and in a lot of cases, they take the opportunity very, very quickly to start growing more wine grapes,
00:08:53 - scale in the hopes Of well, taking advantage of the, the lack of wine available to sell it. It works for a short period of time. but then Odium enters Spain, and when Odium enters Spain, an interesting thing occurs is it's a very, because it's a mold, because it's a fungus, it needs kind of a damp, moist climate. And this means at Central Spain, which is hot, dry, up in the, some places in the plateau regions, wineries could move their products to those regions.

Challenges and Changes in Spanish Wine Production

00:09:25 - of wineries in central Spain. And we see now even French producers buying land in Spain to start to try to grow grapes. Once Odium subsides things, I guess we could say kind of re return to normal. but with the arrival of Oxa and the end of the 19th century, that's the, the big chaos. OXA is completely devastating, and it means that producers, need to rip out their entire vineyards, and they need to replant all of their grapes.
00:10:00 - when there's no wine available, Spanish wine becomes something that is close. It's easily transportable. And with a growing population, especially those who can afford it in France and England and Germany, this means that more Spanish wine is gonna be sold in order to meet the demands. However, there becomes this battle of quality. And the French, once they begin to stabilize,
00:10:30 - in their opinion, are dangerous because they're mixing in, industrial alcohol. They're mixing in chemicals to supposedly change the color and hue of the wine. So what we see a lot in the end of the 19th century is that the French are condemning Spanish wine at a really high rate. And I think that that idea that the French have said that Spanish wine is dangerous, and Spanish wine is a problem, I think that stuck
00:11:02 - during, once we get kind of past the World War II era, it, it goes into some of those things. I kind of previously mentioned that Spain enters this weird sort of pariah state. It's a, it's, it's a dictatorship. And, the, one of the farthest points of Western Europe, it's only usefulness if you will, some might argue, is that it's a politically is that it's against communism. So it's, it's a strong supporter against communism.
00:11:32 - and 1960s, a lot of Spanish wine is still produces bulk. So it's, you know, put in the barrels and shipped out in bulk wine. and one of the biggest complaints that I would see over and over again in the literature, especially with countries like France, was that France had a secret weapon even into the 1960s, which was Algeria, that they were able to access reb wines and have them sent to France at a lower price with lower tariffs.
00:12:04 - They were absolutely infuriated that their wine is being skipped over. and they would constantly make arguments that, you know, if we're talking about an integration of Europe, right? If we're talking about a friendly Europe, you should start purchasing, French wines. And a similar argument kind of rises in, in the British market when it comes to protections. we see that there are lawsuits that begin to get filed over the term sherry, and the idea that if Sherry truly has

Challenges and Evolution of Spanish Wine Identity

00:12:34 - that when you purchase Empire Sherry, so South African Sherry Cypress, Sherry Australian, Sherry in English stores, that this is a problem, and the Spanish Sherry producers sue and they lose in British courts, and Sherry gets to be continuously sold as Empire Sherry or Sherry, which would be Spanish. So kind of internationally, the international concerns is Spain is getting beat up by particularly the French,
00:13:08 - internally, what's an interesting idea is that wine is explicitly local. It kind of seems in the 19th century, right? Wine is produced locally, it's drank locally. And if you go back, historically wine is viewed as something necessary for the diet. there's a, the translation is, you know, with wine and bread one goes on and it simply kind of states that wine and bread make a good meal.
00:13:39 - because it's part of your daily diet. And I think where we start to see kind of in the 1940s, 1950s in that the, the post World War II era, particularly for s Spain, and the question gets Ra raised of like, well, can we make better wine? What if, what if we tried to make good wine? Would our own population drink more, better quality wine? And could this help the economy grow? So especially in the late fifties
00:14:08 - of those, the syndicates, the, the Spanish, syndicates producing these adverts, producing these videos, producing these radio shows. And all of them are trying to get the people in Spain to buy Spanish wine because they want them to, if they say that they buy more Spanish wine, things will be better economically. One of the interesting things is they target, they, they explicitly say they target the housewife because in this, this marketplace of being in Mediterranean,
00:14:41 - of these shows, every day they go to the store. And if they go to the store every day or they go shopping every day, one of the things that should wind up in their basket at the end is, is a nice bottle of wine or a bottle of wine at least. And it was, it was interesting 'cause for a lot of these syndicates, these wine and beer producing syndicates, the greatest threat they saw in the 1960s was the cocktail. And they saw this as a threat because it's at the same time when you now are beginning to get tourists from Northern Europe coming to Spain.
00:15:15 - to Spain, a gin and tonic or a whiskey, you see them a lot more on tables than you do, than you do wine. Well, I hope they take away the idea that Spain is a good producer of wine, first and foremost, and there's a really strong historical connection to wine in Spain. yes, my work starts in the 19th century, but I do bring up some of those issues of nutrition and food from previous centuries.

Understanding the Identity of Spanish Wine

00:15:45 - and wine are very well connected and that it, Spain is going to continue to produce a lot of wine, and it has produced a lot of wine. So that, that's one of the things that, things that I think is important, to take out. another is that it's not as simple to think about how a product gets its identity. you know, the idea that Spanish wine is still having issues on the market.
00:16:15 - conversations and long dere issues. These go back to the French complaining about its quality, calling it dangerous. And there was, there are, even in instances of British doctors calling Sherry dangerous, it takes a while for that to get out of the system, right? To think about wine, especially Spanish wine as not being dangerous. and also to think about all of the players that are involved in giving a product, any agricultural product, any food product, its identity,
00:16:47 - And you think of this as the people who sell it, the people who advertise at government agencies that are interested in moving it, where it goes, what happens when it is shipped somewhere else. And then finally, all the way down to the store, is the store willing to sell a particular type of wine or a particular type of product? And then at the end, does the consumer buy it so that the identity of Spanish wine, it's, it's a road. It's, it's the best laid plans, right? And sometimes they, they don't always work the way one wants them to work.
00:17:18 - And I, I think probably the last ones to think about is just the diversity then of the regions of Spanish wine that, you know, when people say Spanish wine, oftentimes in their mind they think rioja, they think those, those hardy reds from the central part of the country, and there's a lot more to Spanish wine than just that one region. So hopefully what my work kind of leaves people with is an understanding that you have this,
00:18:05 - Wine, that they're producing all of different things and they're, they're trying to do what they can based upon both internal and external concerns, and hopefully that someone else will come along and start looking at the regions more specifically and kind of digging more, more closely at, at each region of the country.

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