Development of Wine Industry in Spain: Three Pioneer Regions in Commercial Wine Production

Abstract

Wine industry in Spain, consolidated as a sector with ancestral traditions, has experienced in the last decades a new dynamism that raises it to a highly competitive position in the international market. However, against what could be expected from the current situation, commercialization of wine production arrived in Spain in relatively recent periods and was limited, at least in the initial stages, to some few areas of the country. In this article, three pioneer regions, Jerez, Penedès and Rioja, are selected to analyze the transition to commercial wine production in a comparative perspective. Special attention is paid to the leading entrepreneurs of each region that played an important role to develop the potential of the sector with modern vinification methods. Careful survey on these three regions reveals that what distinguishes each region from the others is not only the geographical or economic origin of the leading entrepreneurs, but the way they responded to the physical and locational conditions proper to each region. Distinctive behaviors of the leaders also conditioned to a great extent the relationship to be established with the other operators involved in the wine industry. Finally, some spatial implications of this relationship are pointed out through considerations on the physical and functional differences found inside of the region.

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