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Catalunya
One of Spain’s most important wine regions, with the city of Barcelona as its capital, Catalunya has become the home for some very successful and famous wines including Cava,
Always forward thinking, it was the first region in Spain to adopt temperature controlled winemaking in stainless steel tanks and it is also an important producer of cork. The Phoenicians were here well before the Romans and the region has an impressive wine history. When the phylloxera bug ravaged the vineyards of France, wine drinkers turned to Catalunya to provide their wines. When in turn, phylloxera hit Catalunya at the end of the 19th century, 80 % of the wines produced were red. Cava, which was invented in Penedes in 1872, changed all that and white grapevines were planted to replace the red vines and ended up making 70% of the blend.
In the last 50 years, Catalunya has led the Spanish wine revolution, welcoming international grape varieties, modern winemaking techniques and new styles of wine. The region came into the international spotlight in 1979 when a bottle of Torres Cabernet Sauvignon Gran Coronas Black Label Riserva 1970 beat many top classified Bordeaux in a major international wine competition.
Catalunya counts nine D.O.s and one D.O.Q. (Priorat). Other famous D.O.s include Penedes, Terra Alta, Costers del Segre and Montsant. With its proximity to the gastronomic capital of Barcelona, the wines of Catalunya are inextricably linked to Spanish gastronomy.