Feature: Hot summer to bring mixed fortunes for Spanish winemakers

2016 will go down as one of the hottest and driest summer on record in Spain as the sun has beaten down on most parts of the country from June to September, with the current month experiencing record high temperatures.

That weather is a key factor in the grape crop needed to make Spanish wine, but with the grape harvest due to begin in around a week, the heat has had differing effects in different regions, due to soil conditions and the different grape varieties which are cultivated.

Perhaps the best known wine region in Spain is "La Rioja" which is centered round the city of Logrono in the north of the country.

In terms of sales 2016 has been an excellent year for sales of la Rioja with figures in the "El Economista" online newspaper showing the sale of 143 million liters -- 2.81 percent more than in the first six months of 2015.

This came despite a price rise of 4.5 percent, which slightly affected domestic sales (where wine has to compete with beer), but did little to slow exports to places such as China, the United States, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Meanwhile hopes are high for the 2016 vintage.

"In general 2016 has been an excellent year for quality wines," Pau Roca, the Secretary General of the Spanish Wine Federation, told Xinhua.

"The weather has been very good for Rioja and the vineyards are producing at a very high level and the grape growers are even reducing the crop by reducing the grapes. We are going to have a very good quality and a very good quantity harvest in La Rioja," he said, explaining that higher rainfall in the north of Spain had tempered the effects of the heat.

This is not the case all over Spain and some regions will see their harvest badly affected.

"In the zone of Penedes and in the Catalan region it has been a very bad crop. The hot weather has meant that the grapes have not grown and it is a difficult situation to manage, except in some cooler areas," explained Roca.

Meanwhile the region of Castilla-La Mancha, which produces 50 percent of Spain's wine, the weather has not had a major effect on either quality or quantity, however, Roca told Xinhua wine prices are likely to rise because last year's stock has nearly all been sold.

"We have quite good crops in regions of high quality, a normal crop in the region which produces the most quantity and the eastern side of Spain has been badly affected by the heat," he concluded.

That may have a negative effect for the internal market, but will probably do little to affect exports, where the emphasis is on quality rather than quantity. Endit