spain

Although Spain has the largest vineyard surface area, it is behind Italy and France in terms of wine production. The main reason for this is that many of their vineyards are still in shrubby form, which means that the vines are individual shrubs spaced far apart, rather than planted in rows. This kind of cultivation has low yields, but produces top-quality grapes.

The main Spanish varieties (especially tempranillo and garnacha) produce much better grapes with age, so some wine cellars have vineyards that are a hundred years old and more. In the Toro region, they have vineyards that are over 130 years old and date back to the time before the phylloxera louse epidemic, which never occurred there. The reason for this is a combination of sandy soil and low rainfall.