wein.plus
Attention
You are using an old browser that may not function as expected.
For a better, safer browsing experience, please upgrade your browser.

Log in Become a Member

The southwestern Spanish region of Extremadura was once the "poorhouse of the Iberian peninsula" (Miguel Torres). After Spain's accession to the EU in 1986, a dynamic development began in this region with the help of private investors and EU structural funds. Nevertheless, Extremadura is still one of the poorest regions in the European Union. But numerous signs of a new beginning give cause for hope: With its location off most tourist trails, Extremadura is a refuge for individualists, nature lovers and Spain lovers interested in the rich history of this sparsely populated country.

Extremadura - known for ancient and medieval Spain, for cattle breeding, ham specialities and DO wines - does not offer the perfect infrastructure of a fully developed tourist region. Mass tourism is unknown here, none of its towns and municipalities belong to the "Spanish Association of Wine Towns", none of the eleven Spanish wine routes lead through the region. The Extremadura confronts the traveller with history, with nature, vastness, solitude - and with unexpected gastronomic delights.


Extremadura - in the slipstream?

The great Dutch narrator and travel writer Cees Nooteboom also describes his stays in Extremadura in his travelogue "The Detour to Santiago": "The landscape is austere, classic, barren, the places patches of white that hurt the eyes. You can see people coming from afar, sharply delineated in this light that defines people as figures, the dimensions of the landscape give each walk something solemn." Solemn, at times sublime, at times of grandiose monotony: the south-western Spanish land "beyond the Douro" (Extremos del Duero) has remained a land of "extreme harshness" to this day. If the name refers to the geographical proximity to Portugal, this may be a geographically and historically correct translation; but the land and the climate, the sometimes grandiose as well as disturbing expanse and primeval tranquillity, the shimmering air and the dryness of the fields in summer also suggest the second translation: a life of extreme hardship, a life under climatic extremes, but also - it seems today - a life in the undeserved slipstream of the present despite its glorious past.

It was not always so: this millennia-old crossroads of migrations and military marches, this frontline of Islam and Christianity, this scene of occupation and reconquest (Reconquista) saw Celts and Carthaginians, Romans and Moors come and go. The landscape itself has remained as it has always been over the centuries: rather austere and challenging, with the exception of the wetter north, blessed with species-rich nature reserves. A region of Spain where, for the passionate traveller Cees Nooteboom, place names "will suddenly change again from a caress to a lash as I fall from grace, fall prey to confrontation, to the uncompromising harshness of Extremadura."



An impression, an almost existential experience of life, which for Nooteboom and many other travellers is only occasionally alleviated by the many large lakes created in the middle of the last century by dams on the major river courses of the Tagus in the north and the Guadiana in the south. The construction of these dams and the small-scale parcelling of land and distribution of property were intended to slow down chronic migration, generate electricity and irrigate the areas. But by no means all hopes have been fulfilled with the dammed rivers; as paradises for plants and animals, they now stand in contrast to the otherwise often rather barren nature. The waves of emigration in Extremadura, in which some villages lost more than half of their inhabitants, continued and reached their peak between 1960 and 1970. Today, as then, most of the agricultural land belongs to a few large landowners: the sparse holm oak forests - the dehesas - so typical of Extremadura are more than 90% privately owned, with plots ranging from 300 to 2,000 ha. Even the large fincas, which together account for more than 80% of the area with a size of more than 100 ha each, belong to only just under 2% of the population of Extremadura. Large-scale land ownership has a long tradition here - already after the victories over the Moors, the Spanish crown had distributed the reconquered land mainly to the high nobility, knightly orders and the church.


Rich history, sparse population

It is therefore not surprising that for centuries many people turned their backs on this borderland as emigrants - among them quite a few who, as conquistadors, conquerors and subjugators, brought large parts of Central and South America under their inglorious control and under Spanish rule in the 16th and 17th centuries. Hernando de Soto from Barcarrota/Badajoz, who conquered Peru with Francisco Pizarro (Trujillo); Hernán Cortés from Medellín, east of Mérida, who subjugated the Aztec empire - these extremeños are just a few notorious representatives of these soldiers, adventurers and explorers, who were often as madly courageous as they were unscrupulous. Not only nature, but also inheritance law played its part in this exodus: those who, as the second or third born, had to give up land and property in the event of inheritance, became soldiers. When the Reconquista, the reconquest of the formerly Muslim-occupied territories, was completed, it no longer offered young men work in military service. Many of them fled the region soon to be called the "Cradle of the Conquerors" - and a lot of money, a lot of silver and gold flowed back into churches, monasteries, noble palaces and public buildings at that time. Today, they stand in two of the largest Spanish provinces - Cacéres in the north and Badajoz in the south - which together form the autonomous region of Extremadura.

The capital is the centrally located Roman foundation of Mérida, a city that has significant relics and evidence of its Roman era like no other in Spain. Many other places steeped in history seem as if times have passed them by more or less without a trace: In the northern Extremadura, the Renaissance city of Cáceres, the Conquistador stronghold of Trujillo and the famous pilgrimage monastery of Guadalupe provide deep insights into the most diverse epochs of Spanish history; in the south, the Andalusian-looking town of Zafra, known as "Little Seville", or the old Jerez de los Caballeros, which is not only worth seeing as the site of the last members of the Order of the Knights Templar ("Caballeros"). But away from the historically and culturally important centres, the Extremadura has retained a rural and austere character, even by Spanish standards, with many small villages and only a few large towns. Badajoz, close to the Portuguese border, is the only city with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Slightly more than one million people live on just under 41,000 km²; thus, only 2.6% of Spain's inhabitants live on 8.3% of the country's land mass. With a population density of only 27 inhabitants per km², Extremadura is the most sparsely populated region on the Iberian Peninsula.

Culinary abundance

The deserted expanses offer space for intensive use and grazing by cattle, merino sheep and the Iberian black pigs (Cerdos ibéricos), as they have done since time immemorial. As livestock traditionally used for meat, they contribute to the incomparable culinary richness of the region. The aromatic Jamón iberico(Jamón Dehesa de Extremadura) ham has become particularly famous: it is considered especially tasty when it comes from the hind legs of black pigs living freely in the cultivated holm oak forests. Kid and lamb also form the basis of well-known regional meat specialities. As local products, they also bear the title of a protected designation of origin, the Denominación de Origen, as do other local products such as the classic cheeses made from sheep's milk, Torta del casar(www.tortardelcasar.org) and Queso de la Serena. Also famous for their quality and special aroma are the smoked paprika DO Pimentón de la Vera, cherries(DO Cereza del Jerte), honey(DO Miel Villuercas Ibores) and olive oils(DO Aceite Monterrubio, DO Gata-Hurdes), which are often also produced by wine cooperatives and private wineries and thus sometimes contribute significantly to the total turnover.

Wine from Extremadura

In addition to all these specialities, it is above all the wine that has attracted attention in recent years. Extremadura has succeeded in reconnecting with its rich wine-growing traditions, which date back to late antiquity: After pre-Christian beginnings by the Phoenicians, a first great flowering under the Romans and a decline in viticulture in the meantime due to Moorish influences, the importance of wine culture and wine production continued to grow from the 17th century until the 20th century. The Tierra de Barros region in particular had developed into a wine-growing area of the first rank in Spain.

The times are over when even renowned wine guides of the Extremadura still certified at the end of the 1980s that "a lot of wine is produced there, but very little is bottled and sold as named wine". Even the Oxford Wine lexicon notes somewhat smugly in its latest edition that it says of the "Wild West of Spain" that "more sheep than people" live here and that the region is in fourth place in the country's wine production, "although it does not exactly offer ideal conditions for viticulture". Other specialist publications spoke of "run-down vines around Cacéres" and "less suitable varieties" with fatal results: For a long time, simple, rustic products had predominated: "Coarse, alcohol-rich white wines and tart, tannin-rich red wines".

But EU accession in 1986 already had an unmistakable beneficial effect on viticulture: After an initial period of prosperity due to the commitment of private donors, the investments of the last ten years, mainly from EU structural funds, in technology, tanks (with temperature-controlled fermentation) and cellar hygiene led not only to technically appealing, clean wines with an attractive price-performance ratio to this day, but also to a return of the region to the league of prestigious wine regions with some high-quality growths. Indispensable for this resurgence was also the significant decline in alcohol content, which could still reach 14 to 17% in the early 1990s, achieved through better alcohol management.

The Bodegas Lar de Barros - Inviosa (Almendralejo), founded in 1931, should be mentioned as an early pioneer of quality in Extremadura. Not only did they introduce bottling, but they also introduced the most modern technical methods of wine production at an early stage and became known with their wines outside Extremadura as well.

D.O. seat Fachada

Finally, the year 1999 was the most important date in the recent wine-growing history of Extremadura: at that time, Extremadura's only Denominación de Origen to date, the DO Ribera del Guadiana, named after the border river with Portugal, was founded from the six sub-regions that had previously only produced country wine ("Viños de la Tierra"). Today it comprises approx. 25,000 ha, of which approx. 23,130 ha are currently in production. Today's sub-regions include Cañamero in the north-east, Móntanchez in the centre of Extremadura, Ribera Alta in the lowlands of the province of Badajoz, Ribera Baja in the far west of the region, the southernmost area of Matanegra and, finally, by far the most important sub-region, Tierra de Barros ("Clay Land"), which covers more than 70% of the DO and stretches from Mérida to the far south-east of Extremadura and has the climate typical of Extremadura: Dry and extremely hot, with 350-400 mm of annual rainfall and hot easterly winds in summer. It turned out that on the fertile, water-retaining clay soil and under these climatic conditions, the red grape variety Tempranillo produces the best results. It was this region that had already earned the rank of "Denominación de Origen Provisional" (DOP, for areas on the way to becoming a DO) in 1979, thus paving the way for the DO Ribera del Guadiana. With the controlled designation of origin, the chances of removing the major obstacle to opening up new markets have become much better: the level of awareness of Extremadura, which is still low today - especially outside Spain.

Bodegas of Extremadura - diversity of styles

A tour of some of the bodegas and cooperatives shows the variety of styles, qualitative demands and different market positions that Extremadura now has. For example, the Palacio Quemado winery ( Bodegas Viñas de Alange, S.A., Badajoz), located in the province of Badajoz, with its still manageable size of 100 ha, has concentrated on producing high-quality wines. In the estate, founded in 1999, gravity is used for grape transport and juice transport.

The annual yield from Tempranillo, Garnacha, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon is around 200,000 litres, which are matured in 1,000 barriques. Measures such as night-time harvesting, quantity reduction through vine pruning and grape splitting as well as irrigation to avoid drought stress successfully contribute to the high quality of Palacio Quemado's wines. The winery Bodegas Romale (Almendralejo), founded in 1989, also stands for the advance of sophisticated red wines in Spain: 85% of the production are red wines, 85% of which are aged in 600 barriques. Of the already small share in bottles (only about 15%), only one tenth is exported. The DO share is less than 10% of the total. The traditional winery Bodega Martinez Payva is one of the many ambitious estates that can sell the main part of their production - here about 200,000 litres on about 350 ha - on the domestic market. Less than half of the wines produced in a state-of-the-art tank cellar are exported. The different market orientation of cooperatives and cooperatives in the Extremadura is shown by the impressive comparison of the cooperative Sociedad Cooperativa Nuestra Señora de la Soledad in Aceuchal (Badajoz) and the Bodegas San Marcos (Almendralejo). In the Soledad cooperative, which was founded in 1976 and today has 703 members, about 10 million euros have been invested in the last eight years - mainly with money from European structural funds. The new technical facilities were completed in 2002. But only 2.6 million of the 26 million litres produced annually on 6,000 hectares find their way into bottling. The majority of the production, consisting of 80% white wine and 20% red wine, has to be sold as bulk wine in a difficult market that is increasingly fought over by mass and quality suppliers. Lack of quality is not the decisive problem here: the Pedraza Roble, the Pedraza Crianza 2005 as well as the Orgello de Barros 2007 (Tempranillo) are wines of clean craftsmanship, very attractively priced. Some of the production lines still seem arbitrary; organic wines could also be produced - "if desired". Export manager Mariá José Jacinto summed up the difficult market situation of the cooperative: "We are hugh, but still a baby": big in the region and in domestic sales, but so far without any access to foreign markets.

Bodegas San Marcos de Almendralejo presents itself as an outstanding example of quality consciousness and tireless effort: Like many other companies, they reside in the "International City of Wine" and seat of the D.O. Ribera del Gudiana. Ribera del Gudiana, Almendralejo, in the middle of the most important DO sub-region Tierra de Barros. With a cultivation area of 2,600 ha (half white and half red), the company has advanced to become the largest exporter of the DO Ribera del Guadiana. Only three years ago, the winery moved into a new building, whose architecture signals modernity and transparency like hardly any other production facility in the region. Founded in 1980, the 300-member winery now has tanks for a production of up to 10,000,000 litres. 1,500 American oak barriques are kept for the premium lines. Two million litres are bottled, another 2 million in "bag-in-boxes". This year, for the first time, an eco-wine made from 100% Tempranillo will be bottled, 58,000 litres of which are intended for export. The young, very open-minded management team has also successfully introduced "petbottles" - and is the only winery in Extremadura to work with Stelvin (screw) caps. They also harvest 2.5 million kg of olives annually.

The young and flexible team does not want to join just any trading partner under any circumstances: The motto clearly formulated by export manager Julio García-Hierro is: "Wait and find the right distributor"! This should soon be possible thanks to the results of the last vintage: Of all the rosés tasted from the 2007 Extremadura vintage, the cold-fermented Campobravo 2007 rosé from Bodegas San Marcos had the freshest fruitiness and at the same time a lasting aroma: The Extremadura rosé model, expressly conceived as a counter-model to "Lambrusco", should prove to be a successful "market opener". No less convincing appeared with its concentrated fruit the Castillo de Belmiro 2004, (Crianza, Tempranillo, 12 months in barrel) and the Castello de Belmiro 2002 (Reserva, 14 months in barrel), results of many years of comparative sifting of the soils with modern analytical methods, soil-specific grape variety selection and targeted irrigation.

left: Garnacha - right: Pardina

Comparatively mild winters, hot summers: The continental-Mediterranean climate, which is mostly found on the lower plateaus of Extremadura, tends to produce higher alcohol and rather lower acidity values. Nevertheless, the predominant red noble grape variety Tempranillo in particular shows here that - thanks to modern technology - it can also develop its potential outside its classic regions such as Rioja and Ribera Del Duero. With a strong colour, rich body, balanced acidity and an aroma reminiscent of fully ripe cherries and berries, chocolate or even plums, the wines, which are often ready to drink early, are also quite elegant at their best. Classic varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Garnacha enrich the wine production to a much smaller, but noticeable extent. Among the white grape varieties, it is above all the autochthonous varieties Pardina and Blanca Cayetana that can produce finely fruity wines, sometimes even full of character, whose liveliness and freshness never fail to surprise.

left: Cayetana - right: Tempranillo

The 2007 vintage

The 2007 vintage provided impressive examples of these profiles. The not too hot summer and the long ripening phase of the grapes offered optimal conditions for wines of high quality with distinct aromas. Occasionally, it became clear that Tempranillo vuvées supplemented with Cabernet Sauvignon and/or Merlot appear fuller, more powerful, more "modern" than the sometimes quite traditional pure Tempranillo wines, which are definitely reminiscent of old Riojas. This applies, for example, to the "semi-crianza" Viña Maimona from 2005 (70% Tempranillo, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon) from the cooperative Virgen de la Estella or the 2006 Palacio Quemado from Viñas de Alange (Tempranillo, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon), which exudes lasting, powerful, intensive pepper, wild berry and mushroom notes. Even in the basic range (less than 1.25 euros ex-farm), the white young wines (Jovenes) in particular offer some astonishing qualities. For example, the Chardonnay Valdequemao 2007 from Bodegas San Isidro, which is extremely refreshing thanks to its fine acidity and fruit notes of apple, banana and citrus varieties. With pronounced acidity, medium body and invigorating lemon tones, the Viña Maimona (100% made from the white wine grape Eva) is just as pleasing as the Señorio de Pedraza (100% autochthonous white wine grape Pardina) from the Soledad cooperative with an aroma dominated by fresh lemon tones. In the next higher category (1.25-2.50 euros ex-farm), the long-lasting Bláson del Turra from Bodegas Santa Marta (Pardina) with its powerful aromas of ripe pears and bananas accompanied by fine acidity and the Payva (100% Cayetana) from Bodegas Martinez Payva with its comparatively low alcohol content of 11.5% but aromas of ripe mango and powerful extract stood out.

The Emperador from Bodegas Viticulturores de Barros also shows how finely fruity and elegant the white Cayetana can be. In the white premium range (2.50-5.00 euros), the Chardonnay Suerte del Rey(Bodegas Peña del Valle) illustrates that climatic contrasts can lead to the development of very attractive fruit aromas (apple, peach). An exciting and successful "experiment" among the red wines was a Cabernet Sauvignon Valdequemao 2007 (San Isidro Soc. Cooperativa), which impressed with astonishing fruit and aromas typical of the variety. In the red Reserva premium range (5-10 euros), Palacio Quemado 2003 (Viña de Alange, 13.50% Alc., Tempranillo) stood out with an exceptionally aromatic fruit dominated by cherry aromas, with harmony and persistence - the estate and its wines certainly belong to the flagships of Extremadura.

For the 2008 vintage, the control council of the DO was optimistic in view of the development of the ripeness and the first harvests of this year. Managing director Francisco López: "The climatic development has been ideal, with a good, very rainy spring, followed by a summer with comparatively mild temperatures, which has allowed a slow and complete ripening process of all grape varieties and especially the red varieties. The harvest started at the end of August with the early varieties and continued into September. The grapes were harvested in a good state of health and - due to the cool summer - allow us to expect well-structured white wines with a pronounced acidity as well as red wines with an intense colour and fine tannins."

Outlook: Cautious development

Extremadura is increasingly in the international spotlight today not only because of its wines. Together with Málaga and several other Spanish cities, Cáceres is bidding for the title of European Capital of Culture for 2016. The application for "Cacéres 2016" is already contributing to Extremadura's increased awareness of its history, its unmistakable profile and its obvious potential.

With great self-confidence, the extraordinary solar radiation, even in a Spanish comparison, is now being recognised as a regional advantage: The first Spanish solar park "SPEX" - one of the largest free-field solar power plants in the world - was completed at the beginning of October this year by a German solar energy company with some consortium partners near Mérida. Since the beginning of October, its energy generation of 30 megawatts has been able to cover the electricity needs of 16,000 households. The plans for additional motorways and a new international airport in Cáceres for the hitherto inadequately developed region are just as much an expression of a dynamic that is taking hold of the entire country as the state government's decision to invest further substantial funds in the generation of renewable energies in the coming years.

There is much to suggest that the "extremely hard country" will settle into its "extremes" even more successfully in the future. Visitors and future lovers of Extremadura may nevertheless hope that, despite all modernisation, Spain's oldest cultural landscape will remain an independent country characterised by compatible tourism, testimonies of rich history and vast, untouched landscapes: "austere, classic, barren" (Cees Nooteboom).

Facts and figures about Extremadura
(Source: Consejo Regulador de la Denominación
de Origin Ribera del Guadiana, 2008)

Population: 1.1 million (2.6% of the total Spanish population)
Populationdensity: 25 inhabitants/km² (Spain: 78 inhabitants/km², Germany: 230 inhabitants/km²)
Area of the whole region: 41,634 km² (8.3% of the total area of Spain)
Wine-growing area of Extremadura: 87,450 ha
D.O. area: 16.664 km²
Wine-growing area of the D.O. Ribera del Guadiana: 27,290 ha (in production)

The six sub-regions of the D.O

. in size and percentage of production area:

1. Tierra de Barros: 19,219ha 70.42%.
2. Ribera de Baja: 4,909ha 17.99%.
3. mantanegra: 1.965ha 7,2%
4th Ribera Alta: 714ha 2,62%
5. Montanchez: 305 ha 1.12%
6. Cañamero: 178 ha 0.65%

Main grape varieties of

Extremadura with percentage share (as of 2008)

Red

grape varieties:

Tempranillo 16,382 ha 60.02%
Cabernet Sauvignon 1,379 ha 5.05%
Garnacha 323 ha 1.18%

White

grape varieties:

Pardina 2,826 ha 10.35%
Blanca Cayetana 2,186 ha 8%
Macabeo 1,586 ha 5.8%

Maximum authorised yields in all regions:
White wine 10,000 kg/ha, red wine 8,000 kg/ha.
Must yield: Max. 70 litres/100 kg grapes
Prescribed capacity of oak barrels

: Max. 330 litres

Important addresses
Literature about the country, wines and cuisine of Spain and Extremadura
  • John Radford and Mario Sandoval: "Spain's cuisine - Spain's wines - from Andalusia to Valencia". Neustadt an der Weinstraße: Umschau Verlag, 2007. ISBN 978-3-86528-643-7. 192 pages. 24,90 Euro. The wine diversity and culinary richness of all seventeen autonomous regions of Spain - including Extremdura - are presented in a very stimulating way in this atmospherically illustrated volume.
  • The illustrated book "Extremadura - Europe's Oldest Cultural Landscape" by Joachim Griesinger (photos) and Manuela Seifert (text) describes with professional photographs and knowledgeable explanations the various habitats of Extremadura, which has the highest biodiversity of plants and animals in Europe. Steinfurt: Tecklenborg, 2007. ISBN 978-3-939172-20-8. 120 pages. 34,80 Euro.
  • José Peñín: "Guía Peñín. Spain's No. 1 Wine Guide" HEEL Verlag: Königswinter, 2007. ISBN 978-3-89880-620-6. 1,134 pages, 29.90 euros. The 2008 edition of this - despite restraint in the presentation of regions and bodegas - still most comprehensive and informative Spanish wine guide is announced for "end of 2008 or spring 2009".
  • Jan Read: "Spain's Wines 2005/2006. Over 1500 wines from all regions" (Munich: Hallwag, 2005). This overview is unfortunately only available in antiquarian form. No updated new edition has been published for subsequent years; there are no plans to reintroduce it "in the foreseeable future" (Hallwag Verlag).
  • "The Wines of Spain" by Miguel A. Torres (the great innovator of the Spanish wine scene), Mauricio Wiesenthal and Peter Hilgard has long been out of print and may still be available in antiquarian bookshops; in its wealth of facts and historical accounts, however, it is still worth reading today (description of Extremadura as the "poorhouse of the Iberian peninsula"). Mainz: Woschek, 1990.
  • Travel guide: Among the currently available travel guides, two stand out with their information on Extremadura: "Spain" from the well-established travel series "VIS-À-VIS" (rich in pictures, yet very informative) by Dorling Kindersley offers a comprehensive overview of the country and its sights on 13 pages; tips on accommodation and gastronomy can be found in the appendix. Munich: Dorling Kindersley, 2007/2008 (updated new edition). ISBN 978-3-8310-1046-2. 720 pages, 26,90 Euro. "Spain. The South." This inexpensive volume from the "Nelles Guide" series succeeds in giving an informative, sometimes unconventional impression of this region "off the beaten tourist track" on 14 pages with maps, historical explanations and knowledgeable descriptions of the most important cities. ISBN 978-3-88618-787-4. 264 pages. 8,90 Euro. Munich: Nelles Verlag, 2006.
  • Informative research report on the history and significance of the oak forests (dehesas) in the Extremadura: Tobias Plieninger and Claudia Wildbrand: "Die Dehesas in Spanien". - In: Konold, W.; Böcker, R.; Hampicke, U.; (1999): Handbuch Naturschutz und Landschaftspflege, 6th Erg.Lfg. 12/01, ecomed, Landsberg: 14 pp. Available as download.

All photos: © DO Ribera del Guadiana

The wines of Extremadura in the wine guide

The producers of Extremadura in the wine guide

Related Magazine Articles

View All
More
More
More
More
More
More
More
More
More
More

EVENTS NEAR YOU

PREMIUM PARTNERS