A culture decorated with late nights, endless wine, and a snack alongside of it. This is the normal evening in Spain.
The nights start late in the evening and finish early in the morning. Spain, “the land of Fiestas”, is full of proud and lively citizens who frequent bars for social hour, football games, or to party - of course. Before the pandemic, it was said that Spain had the most bars per head within the country in the world.
Interestingly enough, Spaniards are the least likely to indulge in binge drinking. This is because they often drink alongside a meal, or tapas.
The origin of tapas in Spain has several different stories. Some believe tapas which translates to “cover” were slices of meat on a plate that bartenders would give you to put on top of your glass. The meat was to keep flies out of your wine and the plate was extra covering on top of the glass. Another story tells of a Spanish king who had fallen sick with disease and had to eat small portion of food with wine between meals. Upon his recovery, he declared that all Spaniards were to be given small plates with their wine regardless of money to avoid what we now know as a hangover.
Alongside of the tapas within a Spanish bar, you’re likely to see a glass of red wine or Cava. Spain is home some of the most extensive vineyards with it having the largest surface area of grapes in the world. It is also the third biggest wine producer in the world. People around the world look to taste a Spanish Rioja or sub their champagne for Cava.
The Rioja reds that wine condessuirs all over the world love today has a fairly rocky history. Wine from this region was initially created by stomping grapes into stone then aging the wine in clay underground. However, most of these amphorae (wine aged in clay) were poorly sealed and most of the wine spoiled. As time went on techniques from the Bordeaux region in France were introduced and eventually adopted in Rioja in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Then in 1853, France’s vineyards were hit with phylloxera which almost completely wiped out all French wines. This sent winemakers and their expertise to Rioja. But it wasn’t until the legendary 1970 Rioja vintage that the region began receiving extraordinary worldwide recognition. Today we get to enjoy tempranillo, garnacha, verdejo, and viura grapes (to name a few) from the extensive vineyards of Rioja.
Cava first came about in the late 1800s. It was initially produced to be a dupe of the French champagne. However, because of the traditional champagne production laws, sparking wine produced outside of their designated regions cannot be considered champagne. Therefore in the late 1900s Cava officially became recognized as its own entity with a designated region of origin. Cava can be classified based on its sugar content from brut nature to dulce and by its age from joven to gran reserva.
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