SPAIN: Rainless Spain may be wine connoisseurs' gain

Spain is being scorched by its worst drought on record which has translated into a small grape harvest this year. Vineyards in the central region of Castille-La Mancha look dry and weak, specially those with no auto-irrigation technology. "There has been too much drought this year and grapes have weakened a lot and haven't grown properly," said Agustin Guevara, an Ecuadorean who has worked in the region's vineyards for more than ten years. But the dry weather and a small grape harvest could actually make for a better quality wine. "One of the few advantages that it (drought) has is that we are not experiencing problems with fungus or plagues. It is a perfect year from the sanitary point of view and will translate into a grape of excellent quality but that is the result of the misfortune of not having enough humidity and rain," Manuel Sanchez, wine expert for farmers union COAG told Reuters. Spain's wines, increasingly popular internationally, are the latest of its agricultural products threatened by the drought. Olive oil prices are soaring because of drought damage and the country faces massive failure of the grain crop. COAG is expecting a 25 percent reduction in the grape crop. The harvest usually starts in early September, although farmers could start earlier this year to avoid damage from high temperatures. The Agriculture Ministry puts wine output 14 percent lower than last year, but the latest figures only reflect data from June and farmers say they overshoot. But a second year of drought could permanently damage the vines says President "Virgin of the Vineyards" cooperative, Rafael Torres. "It (next year's harvest) is going to be very bad, there would be farmers that are not going to be able to resist the low production and the low prices. I hope this doesn't happen because there are a lot of vineyards in danger of disappearing, " he said. 'Virgin of the Vineyards' is the biggest cooperative of wine producers in central Spain. Hundreds of trucks transporting an average of seven million kilos of grapes per day, arrive every afternoon at its facilities located in the city of Tomelloso. This year, according to Torres, the cooperative has been less busy as the harvest has been smaller. The European Commission has estimated that the 2005 wine harvest for the 25-nation European Union would be about 180 million hectolitres (18 billion litres). The figure is 7 percent below the 2004 output but in line with a five-year average. Growers have estimated that output in Spain's Ribera del Duero area -- one of the most prestigious regions -- would be off 40 percent. But fans of Spain's best-known wine, Rioja, can rest easy. Producers say the Rioja region of northern Spain is a kind of microclimate and they have not expected drought damage. WINE PRODUCTION FACTORIES

ITN Source | September 23, 2005

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