Yecla (wine region)

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The Yecla wine region in the Spanish province of Murcia

Yecla is a wine-growing region in southeastern Spain near the city of the same name, Yecla, in the north of the autonomous province of Murcia . The official designation of origin as a wine from the Yecla region is protected in Spain as Denominación de Origen (German about: designation of origin ; designation of origin ).

geography

Location of the Yecla wine region

The vineyards are on a plateau at an altitude between 400 and 800 m above sea level. NN, are surrounded by rolling mountains and are in the vicinity of the city of Yecla, but within the municipal area. The vineyards cover 11,500 hectares, but only 4,600 of them are approved for quality wine ( DO since 1975). The growing area is divided into the subzones

  • Yecla Campo Arriba with the higher vineyards, on which the Monastrell grape variety is preferably grown. The red wines often reach an alcohol content of 14%.
  • Yecla Campo Abajo with the lower vineyards. Here mainly vines with less alcohol potential ripen (12% for the red wines and 11.5% for the white wines).

In the north, the DO Yecla borders on Almansa (in the Castilla-La Mancha region ), in the west on Jumilla and in the east on Alicante (in the Valencia region). Like Jumilla, Yecla's wines have contributed to Valencia's export volume for years. That only changed when more value was placed on quality in the sales markets. It was then that the wineries in Yecla began to be rebuilt and to experiment with new, lighter styles of wine. Another consequence was the reduction in the area under vines. Of once more than 20,000 hectares of vineyards, only around 11,500 have been preserved.

A special feature is that this area was largely spared from phylloxera , around 40% of the vineyards are still planted with real-root vines.

ground

Deep limestone soils on limestone or clay, with good water permeability and water storage capacity in the subsoil.

climate

Yecla has a distinctly continental inland climate with light Mediterranean influences, dry, hot summers, moderate winters and overall low rainfall (approx. 300 mm / year). Precipitation falls mainly in spring and autumn, occasionally accompanied by strong storms. Temperatures reach up to 39 ° C in summer and drop to -5 ° C in winter. The average duration of sunshine is around 3,000 hours per year.

Grape varieties

The following grape varieties have been approved by the regulatory authority:

Web links

literature

  • John Radford: The New Spain. A complete guide to contemporary Spanish Wine. Mitchell Beazley, London 1998, ISBN 1-85732-254-1 .
  • Jan Read: Spain's Wines 2005/06. 7th, revised, updated edition. Hallwag im Gräfe und Unzer Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-7742-6962-9 .
  • Jeremy Watson: The new & classical Wines of Spain. Montagud Editores, Barcelona 2002, ISBN 84-7212-087-2 .

Coordinates: 38 ° 37 ′  N , 1 ° 7 ′  W