On tour through Spain's wine-growing regions

17. May 2023

Hochschule Burgenland

The last excursion of our Master's programme in International Wine Marketing started with a flight from Vienna to Barcelona.

The programme included nine visits to wineries in the Penedes, Priorat and Montsant regions over the course of three days and, in keeping with the wine region, we were of course provided with plenty of information about cava production, as the world-famous sparkling wine from Catalonia is commonly known.

Exciting for our wine connoisseurs among the readers: Some winegrowers from the region have joined forces and set themselves apart from the traditional Cava producers: They want to reposition themselves with the collective brand Corpinnat and produce sparkling wines of even higher quality.

A guest article by Melanie Moser, Iris Wolff & Eva Wenzl, students of the International Wine Marketing Master's programme

Climate change causes concern

The difference between the nearby wine-growing regions in terms of their soil diversity was also impressive and clearly recognisable. Due to the poor soils and dryness, the vines have to be particularly resistant in order to thrive in this terroir. However, the persistent drought is causing the winegrowers great concern. In the wine regions we visited, it has not rained for a good three months and a further lack of rain could be extremely damaging to the vines. Climate change can already be clearly felt here.

Tasting with a view of the sea

We particularly remembered the last winery, Alta Alella, where we were able to taste the wines with a view of the sea. The orange wine AUS (2021 vintage) from the Alta Alella winery in particular impressed us with its fruity, tart notes and rounded off the entire excursion perfectly.

As with our previous excursions, we were able to take away a lot from Spain: from the relaxed temperament of the Spaniards and the flavour of the bubbly, intense Cava sparkling wines, to the good conversation over tapas in a typical Catalan restaurant with fantastic wines, to the challenging road conditions to some of the wineries.

All in all, the trip was the perfect end to the semester: above all because it gave us renewed strength to successfully overcome the final hurdles of our studies.