Somontano

Somontano is a Spanish wine area in the region of Aragón. Somontano is translated region below the mountains. In fact, the area is located around the town Barbastro on the southern edge of the Pyrenees at an altitude from 350 to 650 m. Politically, it is part of the Comarca de Somontano Barbastro. The mountain range protects the growing area from cold north winds. The rainfall is 550 mm / year; the temperature differences between the cold winters and hot summers are high.

The area has the status of a D.O. since 1984 ( Denomination of origin ). The development since then has been very positive: the vines grew within the last 22 years from 1300 ha to 4600 ha now 42 municipalities are located in the specified region of Somontano.

Approved varieties are the red Moristel, Tempranillo, Garnacha, Parraleta, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Syrah and the white Macabeo, Garnacha blanca, Alcañon, Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer. 15% of the applied dose are white wines, red wines, as well as the rest of a very small proportion rose wines.

History

Historically, the region experienced in the Alto Aragón from 1894 its first peak. The Lalanne family owns in Bordeaux Rebgärten who fell victim to phylloxera. Looking for intact areas are selected in northern Spain, the Somontano and supplies the predominantly South American customers with wines from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The wines know but also in Spain a great success ( Lalanne is the purveyor to Alfonso XIII. , The grandfather of the present King Juan Carlos appointed ). This success is highly school and so the end of the 19th century, about 100,000 are conservatively estimated hectares of vines planted (30 times more than today ). The enthusiasm ends abruptly, and the north of Spain is attacked by phylloxera. After a long period of inaction, the area only awoke in the 1980s to life, and for about ten years, some of Spain's best wines are produced.