Screaming Eagle winemaker Nick Gislason wears many hats – he is also the Technical Director of Lopez Island Community Fireworks and co-founder of Hanabi Lager. FONDATA's Gavin Lucas caught up with the busy man to discuss how these dichotomous ventures have more in common than you might think.

Screaming Eagle's Nick Gislason on winemaking, beer brewing (Hanabi Lager) and designing fireworks (Island Community Fireworks)

FONDATA: Curiosity & Wonder: Magic’s Secret Ingredients 

Curiosity and wonder: magic’s secret ingredients

Spain didn’t know what we had or that we were able to make world-class wines…we are still not sure what we have, what we can do. It is a super exciting time. Just 15 years ago Spanish wine collectors just bought French and Italian wine, now today we have a real variety of fine wines coming from all over Spain.” But Spain’s history has been a little less than smooth. Whilst Spain might have the highest quantity of vines planted in the world it has one of the lowest consumption rates in Europe. This disconnect with its own produce is one of the reasons behind Spain’s slow uptake in a more qualitative approach to winemaking. 
Wine as nourishment: days of hardship Luis recalls his grandfather used to drink wine for nourishment. Following the struggles of civil war and dictatorship, most of the country lived under extreme hardship. A lack of fresh drinkable water meant wine would often be mixed with water. Wine offered the cheapest means to nutrient intake.  At this time there was also a huge disconnect with the wineries and grape growers in Spain. The wineries in Spain were operating at an industrial scale, producing masses of cheap wine. There was almost no relationship between growers and producers and no concept of quality, when quantity was the benchmark of economic viability. During this time, even these cooperative wineries struggled to survive.   The vignerons' relationships with herbicides is a good example of just how much things have changed in viticulture, not just in Spain but the whole of Europe, over the last century. During this difficult period, herbicides were the only viable way to produce wines under such economic hardship, and an educated workforce in the vineyard was a luxury most could not afford.  It was thanks to herbicides that the wine industry effectively survived through this period, despite its negative long-term consequences, acting as a poison to the soil. Luis contrasts this with today’s richer Spain where a qualitative approach has taken hold with a more long-term sustainable future in which herbicides are no longer necessary nor appreciated. The survival of the iconic wineries of Spain Despite the difficulties of the times, there were historic / iconic qualitative producers that existed throughout this period, iconic wineries of Vega Sicilia, Marques de Murrieta and Marques de Riscal for example. But according to Luis most of these survived simply because the wine production was not their main source of income.  These historic estates survived on incomes from elsewhere as landowners and property developers. Luis identifies how the 1925 Ygay Rioja was not bottled until 1964 and not released onto the market until 1973, stating this is not the sort of business plan that could sustain a business without other income! 
Spain reaches out to Europe in search for identity But when democracy arrived in Spain and the country became less isolated and wealthier, history of circumstance again stifled Spain’s wine industry. For many producers who looked
to Europe for inspiration chose to copy rather than invest in its own indigenous grapes varieties and traditional wines. Instead in regions like Navarra all the indigenous old vines were uprooted and French varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah were planted. For those producers who took the qualitative approach Luis recalls how they took all the excesses of modern winemaking fashionable in the 1990s and threw them all at their wines with little reflection on the consequences. Picking grapes super ripe, over-extracting them, ageing them in 200% new oak. Whilst these wines hit the headlines in some respect, for Luis, it did little to recapture the essence or identity of Spanish wine. Luis states how some of the wines that are most praised today in Spain were unsaleable during this time. For instance Lopez de Heredia, one of the most traditional producers in Rioja, who never swayed under the pressure of fashion during this period and who continued to only ever release their Gran Reserva 20 years after harvest.  However, during the mid-90s, these wines were so out of fashion amongst Spanish wine drinkers and collectors they could barely sell a single bottle. Due to the economic restraint that this put on the winery they were forced to stop producing their flagship Gran Reserva from the mid-nineties. So today we have one of Spain’s now most celebrated and respected wineries unable to release their top cuvee, since they were not able to make the wine 20 years ago. Their last release of the Gran Reserva Red was the 1995 vintage, released in 2015. Their next release will be their 2001, due for release in 2021. Luis recalls a similar story with Vega Sicilia. Their much praised 1970 vintage remained unbottled at the winery for years, simply because there were no orders for it. Therefore, these wines became known for their super long élevage often remaining in barrel and tank for years due to lack of interest rather than for qualitative reasons! 
The global success of Rioja Rioja is an interesting anomaly in Spain’s fortunes as a region heavily influenced, first-hand, by Bordeaux. Following the outbreak of phylloxera in Bordeaux many Bordelais travelled south to Rioja to reestablish their wine businesses. They introduced the use of small oak barriques to mature the wine. Traditionally, Luis recounts, Rioja was made using carbonic maceration and no oak. The use of American oak became adopted, more likely due to its lower cost. This positive influence from France saw Rioja become a hugely successful brand in itself and an export success for Spain’s struggling wine industry. However, fast forward 100 years and now the “Rioja” brand is in some ways its biggest issue. This, Luis states, is a broader debate over how the DO classification system in Spain has become outdated. What was good for the region when it was initially created in 1926, is not good for it now. Back then Spain was poor and isolated. In order to create a wine for export it had to create an overall brand – Rioja.  “Everyone was on the same train” and “it was a way to open up markets”. But today the language of wine has changed. A similar issue has happened with Cava too. Luis states that wine from Rioja and Cava is not all the same and if there is wine of poor quality associated with that name then it can become a liability to a producer who is more focused on a qualitative approach. Not all wines are great under a DO, not all vineyards are the same quality. The DO now needs more differentiation. Luis looks to the Burgundy model as a guide. Here there is differentiation, something a collector can grasp and decipher. But it is not just “terroir” but also better winemaking. We discuss the comments made by Robert Parker who attacked producers for using the phrase “terroir” to hide what was effectively bad winemaking. Now there is so much more communication between
winegrowers, thanks first to the country being less isolated, but perhaps more importantly the world of information opening up thanks to the internet. Luis remembers winemakers he met in Spain who didn’t even know what malolactic fermentation was. They were just not educated on modern winemaking concepts and techniques. Today this is not the case and terroir has started to mean something more tangible than merely a distraction attributed to bad winemaking. Luis states “wine is so complex. We know so little about it but we have never been so connected and that has helped enormously in bringing confidence to winemakers in Spain, bringing courage for them to rediscover their own indigenous varieties and trust in their unique terroirs.” Spain’s Renaissance Spain in the last few years has become tremendously exciting as a fine wine region with great variety, seemingly from every corner of the country, rich with a sense of identity, authenticity and uniqueness. Asked what the catalyst was for this Luis believes it has been a gradual change over the last 25 years following Spain coming out of its political isolation. We are a result of our history.  “It created an inferiority complex that has been part of our DNA, especially the last 80 years, when Spain was an isolated country after a civil war. It took a long time to believe in ourselves. There was a tendency to think that the stuff around us was better than our own. Now we have a new generation of producers who have a belief that their indigenous varieties and their terroirs can produce wines as fine as anywhere else in the world." This Luis states has also been helped by consumers becoming more adventurous and open to discovering new regions, new styles. This quality revolution as “a phenomenon that has really accelerated in the last ten, and perhaps perceived globally in the last two.” Be in no doubt the top wines of Spain being produced today stand head to head with other fine wine regions around the world and deserve a place in everyone’s collection. Explore more Editorial 

We speak to one of the world’s leading wine critics, a specialist in Spanish wine, Luis Gutierrez about the cultural history of wine in Spain, the reasons behind today’s renaissance and why it has taken so long to arrive.

One of the world’s leading wine critics, Luis Gutierrez on the cultural history of Spanish wine and the reasons behind its renaissance 

Luis Gutierrez on the Spanish wine renaissance

The Spanish Renaissance: a rediscovery of its roots

What is Port? Port is a fortified wine made in the Douro Valley in Portugal. Traditionally the wines were shipped along the river to Oporto (also known as Porto), from which the wine takes its name. A huge number of grapes are permitted for Port production, however, there are five main varieties used: Touriga Nacional (widely thought to be the best grape for Port, giving its name to Quinta do Noval’s top wine, Nacional), Tinta Barroca, Touriga Franca (or Touriga Francesa), Tinta Roriz (aka Tempranillo) and Tinto Cão. The vineyards sit on steep, terraced slopes alongside the Douro river. Thanks to these vertiginous slopes, much of the vineyard work has to be done by hand, with little mechanization possible. The further inland you go – moving east from Oporto – the hotter and drier the climate becomes. The vineyard area is divided into three key regions: Baixo Corgo: The coolest and wettest region which produces the lightest wines. Cima Corgo: With lower rainfall and higher temperatures, this is the traditional area for the best Port wines. Douro Superior: Particularly dry and hot, this lesser-planted region nevertheless can produce very high-quality wines. For red wines, the grapes are trodden – traditionally by foot, but also now by machine – and fermentation is cut short by the addition of neutral alcohol (called aguardente), thereby leaving residual sugar in the wine. Styles of Port 
There are two main types of Port – those aged in bottle and those aged in cask. Those
aged in cask are designed to be consumed upon release, while those aged in bottle need time to mature.  Ruby: The most basic, entry-level Port is Ruby. The wine tends to be aged in cask or tank for two to three years. Bottled while youthful, it’s bold and full of primary fruit, with a fiery kick from the spirit. No need to decant. Reserve: A step up from ruby, this wine is normally aged a little longer (again in bulk rather than bottle), perhaps being made with higher-quality fruit, so that it has more complexity than a ruby Port. No decanting necessary. LBV: Late Bottled Vintage Port comes from a single year, but spends more time maturing in cask (rather than bottle). Bottled between four and six years after its harvest, the wines are designed to be consumed long before vintage Port, but offer some of the complexity of the
style. Some wines are filtered and others aren’t, so it may or may not need decanting. Crusted: This style takes its name from the crust, or sediment, it throws while in bottle. A blend of several years, the wine is – like LBVs – aged a little longer in cask before bottling,
and likewise is designed to offer some of the complexity of vintage Port. Decanting is essential Vintage: The finest Ports come from a single vintage. This style accounts for a mere 1% of production, with the wines only made in certain years from the very best fruit. Traditionally vintages are either “declared” by producers (and therefore it is a year where they make a vintage Port) or not (with the official declaration classically announced on St George’s Day, a year and a half or so after the harvest). There are, however, a few years with “split declarations” where some producers chose one year, and others chose another for their vintage wines. While once there were only three or so declarations each decade, climate change has seen an increasing number of years producing fruit worthy of vintage wines, and therefore an increasing number of declarations. The wines tend to spend two or three years in wood, but are aged mostly in bottle. These
wines are built to last – having lots of tannin, flavour and alcohol. Spending decades in bottle, they develop extraordinary complexity. Because of the high tannin level, these wines throw a lot of sediment and it is essential to decant them. Single Quinta: These are vintage wines from single “quinta” or estate (while Vintage Ports are often a blend of estates), often produced in years that are not officially declared.  Tawny: Tawny Ports are aged oxidatively in cask, and thereby gradually losing colour to develop a “tawny” colour, while also developing nutty, dried fruit and caramel aromas. The longer it is aged, the more complexity it has. (The most basic examples are a blend of ruby and white Port to create the appearance of a Tawny, but none of the same flavour complexity.) Tawny Reserves have seen minimum seven years in cask, while many come with an age statement – 10, 20, 30 or Over 40 years old – indicating the average age of the blend.  Colheita is a Tawny from a single vintage, spending minimum seven years in cask prior to release (although it is often longer). They are designed to be consumed soon after bottling (a long time in bottle can in fact negatively impact the wine’s quality) and no decanting is
necessary, although you may want to chill the wine lightly. Given their oxidative nature, Tawnies can often last longer once open than their red counterparts.  White: White Port is mainly made with the Gouveio, Malvasia Fina and Viosinho grapes. Youthful examples can make for an excellent aperitif, sometimes served with tonic and lemon as a cocktail, but you can also find rare aged white Ports, carrying an age statement that – as with Tawny Port – is the average age of the blend. Best Port vintages of the last 50 years: 1970, 1977, 1983, 1985, 1992, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Browse Port or read more Editorial 

Rich, complex and deeply rewarding, at its best Port is one of the most age-worthy styles of wine produced today. Here’s a quick guide to the fortified wine – from the various styles made to the best vintages to buy

Port is one of the most age-worthy styles of wine. Here’s a quick guide to the fortified wine from the various styles made to the best vintages to buy

Everything you need to know about Port wine

Everything you need to know about Port

“Meet my girlfriends,” calls Telmo Rodríguez down the phone, laughing as he flips his camera to show two enormous shaggy-haired mutts. The skies are crisp and blue on the other side of the screen, the sun beating down on Remelluri, his family estate in Rioja Alavesa. The camera swings across the horizon as he introduces me to one of his team before rushing indoors to sit down for our call. There’s an almost frenetic energy to Rodríguez – and that energy is what in many ways defines the maverick winemaker, who has been one of the transformational forces in Spanish wine.  His parents purchased La Granja Nuestra Señora de Remelluri – a farm that has been home to vines since at least the 14th century – in 1967. Growing up on this special property, young Rodríguez went off to study winemaking in Bordeaux, then trained at properties including Cos d’Estournel, Domaine de Trévallon, Chave and more. He returned home inspired and excited to use his new-found knowledge on the family property in the early 1990s. But his father didn’t welcome Telmo’s ambition: the market didn’t want great or even good Rioja, he told his son – the market wanted cheap Rioja. Although he wasn’t allowed to make changes to the red, Rodríguez was given free rein to create the property’s first white wine. And that wine rocketed him to fame. White Rioja has always been niche (today just 9% of the vineyard area is planted to white grapes), but in the 1990s its future was looking uncertain – with the traditional, oxidised style of wines such as López de Heredia’s Tondonia Blanco fallen from grace, and many producers had given up on making these wines (as with CVNE’s Monopole Clásico, which has since been revived). Rodríguez wanted to create a wine of place, rather than a wine of style, and used complex field blends planted at higher altitudes to do so. Fermented and aged in a combination of tank and oak, Remelluri Blanco was unlike any other wine in the region. Robert Parker wrote of the 1996 vintage that it was “the finest white wine [he had] ever tasted from Spain”. The multi-variety blend doesn’t include the region’s trademark white, Viura, and is technically illegal – a fact that perhaps has only increased its appeal.  But Rodríguez was frustrated by his father, by the limitations put on him and his wines. Restless and with a rift in the family forming, he flew the coop to focus on his own project. In Bordeaux he had become friends with a fellow Spaniard, Pablo Eguzkiza, who had been working at Pétrus, and together they had already started making wine – beginning with an old-vine Garnacha from Navarra in 1994. With that wine, Compañía de Vinos Telmo Rodríguez was born.  Their vision was to make real Spanish wine – the wines that had been made before, as they saw it, France started to sway the industry. When the deadly louse phylloxera had swept through France in the late 19th century, killing its vineyards, the nation looked south, across the Pyrenees to Spain. Producers travelled there to make wine and feed demand, and Rioja in particular saw an influx of business and money – but this uplift also came with French influence. In Rodríguez’s view, this was the ruining of the trade – Rioja, which had once been a wine of site, became a wine of oak. And soon, across Spain, the variety that once defined its many regions was being over-written with international varieties. Spain became known for cheap wine – and producers were racing to the bottom.  “The worst are the British,” says Rodríguez. “They say they know Rioja and they know Sherry, but, in a certain way, the British market killed Sherry and killed Rioja because they are very happy to have a cheap Reserva for a few pounds.” The dominance of what he describes as “industrial brands”, the larger houses that buy in fruit from across the region, aged in American oak for “traditional” styles, and French for “modern”, is abhorrent to him.  “I’m sorry, you don’t know anything about Rioja. Tell me one village. Tell me one taste. Tell me one landscape. Tell me one mountain. Nobody knew anything,” he says. He explains how Labastida – a village neighbouring Remelluri – was once the Vosne-Romanée of Rioja, home to 330 different wine producers in 1680. But over the years, that history has been blended away.  Together, Rodríguez and Eguzkiza set out to uncover and reveal the Spain of yesteryear, working with old vines, native varieties and traditional methods to champion what they saw as the true Spanish wines. From their beginnings in Navarra, they looked to Arribes del Duero, to Rueda, to Málaga, to Aragon and back to Rioja, then Ribera, Toro and Sierra de Gredos.   “Now we are showing what is real,” Rodríguez tells me, with a sense of satisfaction. In Rioja, for example, they created Bodegas Lanzaga in 1998, looking to focus on the terroir around the town of Lanziego. The Consejo (regulatory body), however, didn’t allow them to use the name of a village on the label until 2017. For almost two decades they protested this rule, featuring the name on the label, but redacted (inspired in part by the art of Jenny Holzer). Today, there is a clear, and growing, movement of producers looking to focus on single-site expressions of Rioja’s best vineyards, shifting away from cross-regional blends and the dominance of oak. This echoes what is happening elsewhere in Spain, as producers focus on indigenous grapes and identifying what makes each of its varied regions unique. It’s a revolution – one that Rodríguez has been at the forefront of. It's easy to think of this rockstar duo as flying winemakers – having so many projects scattered around the country, only touching down briefly to sign off on blends before they’re off to their next event. While inevitably their schedule is intense, their focus is firmly in the vineyard and on reflecting each individual place and site – rather than crafting a range that speaks of their influence. “It’s a very honest approach to a place,” Rodríguez says. The references throughout our conversation only emphasise this: Burgundy, the ultimate “terroir” wine, is where he finds his inspiration; while the Super Tuscans are repeatedly scorned for their internationality.  Matallana is quite possibly Telmo Rodríguez’s most ambitious project to date. He and Eguzkiza first made wine in Ribera del Duero in 1998, and have slowly built up 21.5 hectares of vines around the region.  “My dream was to do a very good Vega Sicilia. I wanted to do the Vega Sicilia that I used to drink in the past,” explains Rodríguez, talking about bottles from the 1940s, ’50s or ’60s. Back then, he says, it wasn’t an estate wine but fruit was sourced from around the region. For him, Vega Sicilia is now too “Bordeaux-style”. He argues that while in Rioja the soils are quite consistent, Ribera del Duero is incredibly varied. They have chosen to work with a range of vineyards across five villages – Sotillo de la Ribera, Roa, Fuentecén, Fuentemolinos and Pardilla – ranging from quartz-rich or pebbly soils reminiscent of Châteauneuf-du-Pape to chalky albariza and clay-heavy sites. This diversity is what helps bring complexity to the wine, with each one producing a different expression of Tinto Fino.   The work involved in each of the Compañía de Vinos Telmo Rodríguez projects is painstaking, tracking down special parcels, reviving soils and replanting or grafting where necessary, working organically and biodynamically, to achieve the quality they’re looking for. For Bodegas Lanzaga, for example, it was over a decade before they produced the first vintage of their top wine, Las Beatas, from a 1.9-hectare plot of the same name (first made in 2011).  For Matallana, they wanted to track down the region’s very best, historic vineyards in each of the five villages. But it’s not been easy. All too often they’d been abandoned, some needed re-planting entirely, or otherwise re-grafting with massal selections, and serious work to bring the soils back to life. They wanted to work with unirrigated bush-vines and field blends – vineyards farmed as they might have been in the 19th century. And then there’s the complex ownership: to buy just six of their 21.5 hectares took seven years, purchasing tiny plots from 40 different families.  Although they’ve been making wine here since the 1999 vintage, it wasn’t ready until relatively recently – and Rodríguez considers the 2014 the first “real” vintage of the project. Before that point they had made three wines, a selection of fruit from the oldest vines that went into the “Grand Vin” Matallana, a second wine M2 and the unoaked Gazur from younger plots. “They were prototypes, we were learning,” explains Rodríguez. From 2014, there is only one wine, with a change in the label to reflect the shift.  As with the older vintages from Bodegas Lanzaga, the label shows a list of redacted vineyard names – which are still not permitted to feature on the labels in Ribera del Duero. “All those vineyards are the guarantee of the purity of our wines,” says Rodríguez. In fact, the label is embossed, so beneath the censored text, you can feel the names of these terroirs. He’s moved to reduce the oak, using some foudres and tinajas (amphorae), while also acknowledging that the wine needs movement and oxygen to polymerise the tannins. The result, however, is a more delicate wine. At the end of the day, he says, “We don’t care about the winery… our wine is the landscape, is the soils.” The difference between the “new” and “old” Matallana is striking. The 2020 is pure, vibrant – a mineral wine with crystalline fruit that speaks of place.  “I don’t want to be pretentious, but we want to create another iconic wine from Ribera del Duero,” says Rodríguez. There’s no shortage of ambition here – and they’re looking to increase production to around 40,000 bottles a year (up from around 25,000 currently). “It took us 25 years… but we knew we were doing something rare, different.” The latest move has been to partner with Jean-Guillaume Prats (currently of Ch. Léoville Las Cases, previously of Ch. Lafite Rothschild and Cos d’Estournel), and start distributing the wine via La Place de Bordeaux, to bring the wine to an even bigger audience.  Rodríguez is now 61 – but there’s no sign of him slowing down. “People say that I’m too old to plant vineyards,” he says, clearly finding such a thought absurd. He’s just planting three hectares he tells me – vineyards that will be amazing, he feels, maybe in 15 years’ time. On the day we talk, he had five local youths coming to meet his team, the children of local viticulturalists in Labastida; they’d be making wines together with the best 2,000 kilos from each of their family’s plots – a project that has been going four years. There’s no looking back from this vigneron, whose eyes are firmly on the horizon, as he continues to push boundaries and forge a future for those that will follow him.  Explore all wines from Telmo Rodríguez and Matallana or read more Editorial 

Telmo Rodríguez is one of Spain’s most famous names. Since the 1990s, he has been a controversial figure, fighting for the nation’s vinous heritage. We caught up with the relentless revolutionary to talk about his journey, the real Rioja and his most challenging project to date

Telmo Rodríguez is one of Spain’s most famous winemakers. We caught up with him to talk his journey and his most challenging project to date, Matallana

Telmo Rodriguez – the eternal battle

Telmo Rodríguez: the eternal battle

The most famous vineyard in Argentina is named after Dr Adrianna Catena, who is the youngest daughter of pioneering vigneron Nicolás Catena Zapata. As well as her viticultural endeavours at Catena Zapata and her partnership with Alejandro Vigil as co-founder of the cult Argentine winery El Enemigo, she is a practicing historian.  Her area of interest is the 15th and 16th century Americas – a time when wine (and the vine) were first introduced to the continent following the Spanish conquest. The pivotal role of wine in Catholic ritual, and the dangers associated with drinking fresh water, she believes, would shape the development of wine production in the Americas. For Catena, the intimate relationship between wine and water continues to play a central role in shaping Mendoza’s social landscape.  The history of water and wine in South America is a fascinating topic for Catena. Although her PhD thesis focused on the trade in indigo dye from the Americas to Europe, her attachment to wine – as well as the very real concerns of water scarcity in Mendoza – are subjects important to her as a historian and as a vigneron. Through the Catena Institute of Wine (CIW), the Catena Zapata winery has pioneered research in viticulture across a broad rand of topics. It includes ground-breaking work on terroir, ageability, and soil biodiversity, as well as in depth studies on extreme elevation vine growing in a context of changing climatic conditions – but some of their most pressing work centres around water preservation.  “Water preservation is one of our most important areas of research today,” says Catena. “Organic farming is easier in the very dry climate of Mendoza, than in Bordeaux, where higher rainfall and relative humidity mean vineyards will be more susceptible to fungal diseases – for us, when it comes to a sustainable future and regenerative farming, water preservation is key.” Catena Zapata’s head viticulturalist Luis Reginato is nicknamed “the water guy” at Catena – such is his obsession.  “He’s always trialing new, experimental ways to save water.” But she notes, the region has a long successful history of water management for Reginato to tap into. “The irrigation systems developed by the native Huarpe people before the arrival of Europeans were key to successful agriculture in the region, and these systems are still in use today,” says Catena.  For centuries, irrigation channels and aqueducts have diverted water from the Andes mountains to terrace lower Andes farmlands, bringing fresh drinking water to the cities. The Incas, Catena says, whose power extended briefly to this region, were quite unique among early modern empires in the quality of their nutrition and a notable absence of famine – made possible by terraced agriculture on the Andean slopes and complex irrigation systems.  While advanced water networks had been essential to pre-Hispanic and later colonial agriculture, Europeans treated drinking water with caution. “Up until the last century, it was a common belief that water, especially in exotic or tropical regions, could be bad for your health,” says Catena. “Contaminated water could (and can still) kill you and was considered extremely dangerous.” Wine in many parts of Europe (and the Americas, following the Spanish conquest) along with ales and beer, was often considered a safer option. Where they felt there was no access to clean water, wine became an essential part of the diet.  Wine was a key European import in the early days of the Spanish conquest, notes Catena. And for the Spaniards, it was not without its health benefits. “During this period, medicine was humoral, people believed everything you ingested would affect your mood, health, and disposition,” she explains. “In one claim from the time, ‘vino‘ (wine) came from the word ’vena‘ (vein) – it was considered nourishing, and closely resembles blood and was associated with this. Some believed it fortified the veins.”  But, as Catena explains, wine was more than a health benefit for the conquistador. “Wine was also an essential symbol of Christianity and Christianity was a moving force in the Spanish conquest.” The conquest of Mexico would roughly coincide with the start of Luther’s Reformation.  The Spanish, for their part, wanted to secure a triumph for Catholicism, and in the inhabitants of the new world, saw millions of souls to fill their ranks against the Protestants. “It was the conquistador’s mission,” she says. “Behind the conquest was a big effort to convert the native population.” Catena explains how wine – as with wheat – was a highly symbolic food for Christianity, representing the blood of Christ.  “If you are trying to convert an entire native population to Catholicism, rituals will be fundamental,” she says. Wine had always held a central role in religious ritual and was key to the religious side of the Conquest. Conquistadors, she explains, had to build a church on their land after being awarded territory by the Crown for their service – and they were also made responsible for converting the indigenous population. “In this quest, as one historian put it, to advance the religious and territorial conquest – the two basic foods the Spanish needed were wheat and wine.” Initially, all wine was imported from Europe, but vines were swiftly introduced and acclimated. By the 1570s vineyards had been planted all over South America, albeit under strict regulations. Priests, for example, were allowed to plant vineyards – but there was a lot of legislation over who could and couldn’t grow grapes. By the 1570s vineyards had been planted all over the Americas.  For health, religious and cultural reasons, everyone drank wine in 16th and 17th century South America – it was part of the diet, explains Catena. But as the influence of humoral medicine waned following the Enlightenment – and better sanitation practices were discovered – the perceived symbolic benefits of wine declined. As the population grew exponentially in the 19th century, so did wine production in Argentina. Italian and Spanish immigrants arrived on the continent, leaving behind their famine-stricken homelands. “Wine consumption reached extraordinary levels,” says Catena, “particularly with the development of the railways.” This new technology enabled the speedy, efficient transportation of wine from producing regions to the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires. Nicola Catena was one such immigrant, who arrived in Mendoza in 1898 at the age of 17, planting his first vineyard in 1902. A native of Le Marche, from a family of vinegrowers, it was not so surprising that Catena went into wine production.  While Mendoza is much like a desert with very little rainfall (between 200 and 400 mm per year), the irrigation channels developed by the indigenous Huarpe people (a nation periodically under Inca rule), were used to divert snow melt from the Andes, enabling farmers to flood farmland when required, making viticulture possible. By the time Nicola’s son Domingo Catena took over, the family had become renowned winemakers in Mendoza. In more modern times, wine and water’s relationship has changed considerably. Wine in many instances has become a luxury and no longer an essential part of the diet – although Catena says that culturally wine remains a common sight at every meal in Argentina.  Under the guardianship of Nicolás Catena and now his daughter Laura, Catena Zapata has become among a growing number of quality-led producers in Mendoza whose wines compete with the finest in the world. Their top wines – Mundus Bacillus Terrae and Nicolás Catena – led the charge in putting Mendoza on the fine wine map. Water too is no longer viewed with as much caution, but nor is it taken for granted. It barely rains at all in Mendoza – with the region effectively a high-altitude desert. Without snowmelt from the mountains, agriculture here would be impossible, but glacial reserves in Argentina are decreasing. With climate change, water in these parts will no longer be simply available at the turn of a tap. “The preservation of water has become an important concern of winemaking in Mendoza. This is one of the most urgent questions for our region today,” says Catena. Ongoing research at Catena includes many water-saving experiments. “More than a decade ago we transitioned all our vineyards from the traditional, but wasteful system of flood irrigation, to drip irrigation. Since then, we’ve created reservoirs to capture rainwater, and set up water stations to measure and restrict irrigation to the bare minimum in our family vineyards.” For Catena, “these small changes can have a large and lasting impact.” The goal at Catena is to manage a regenerative and sustainable agricultural cycle. Catena notes how the Incas were able to transform their environment without causing irreparable damage to it. “We can inhabit this earth without being parasitical,” she says. As members of a larger viticultural community, Catena hopes to share the lessons it has learned from its research, to enable this region that has been shaped by water and wine to continue making high-quality wine centuries from now. Optimistically she says, “We believe we are at a tipping point, and the mindset is gathering momentum here more than ever before.” Since wine was introduced to the continent in the 16th century, there have been huge cultural changes. But the irrigation systems that allowed those first vines to grow remain in use, feeding the countless vineyards, often centuries old. Without water, there will be no wine. With Argentinian wine so popular around the world today, a lot rides on Catena Zapata’s research. The hope is that they can lead the charge, shaping a bright future for this region. Browse all listings from Catena Zapata and El Enemigo or read more Editorial 

Dr Adrianna Catena – of Catena Zapata and El Enemigo – is not just a winemaker, but a practicing historian. We sat down with her to talk about how wine shaped South America’s social landscape and how water conservation and sustainable irrigation practices will secure its future.

Dr Adrianna Catena from Catena Zapata and El Enemigo on the historical importance of water and wine in the Americas.

Talking to historian and vigneron Adrianna Catena

How water and wine shaped a civilisation: Adrianna Catena

Finca Lopez Noceti

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