Native varieties, a future value or a romantic past?

The defense and recovery of indigenous grape varieties, as opposed to the proliferation of foreign varieties, is currently the most heated and fiercely debated topic in the world of wine, in Catalonia, but also in most European wine-growing areas, except, of course, in the French producing areas where the varieties that are considered foreign elsewhere originate.

Even in the countries of New Wine World, Australia, Argentina or Chile, where they do not have native varieties since viticulture is an agricultural activity imported from Europe, they have tried - and succeeded in some cases - to make some grape varieties their own, all of French origin. Thus, Australia has adopted the will be as the country's most representative grape, Argentina the variety malbec, Chile the carmenère (extinct due to phylloxera in Bordeaux, its place of origin) or the tanned a Uruguay.

And how is it that there is so much debate about this issue now if a year ago - let's say thirty - no one was talking about it? Well, on the one hand, because consumers' knowledge was much more basic and the choice was based on the brand without much more criteria. In addition, there were fewer varieties to choose from, since the French ones were just becoming popular and the native ones had not been taken from one place to another, so in each area it was made with two or three local varieties. On the other hand, until a few years ago, temperature control of fermentation was not common and this did not allow the primary aromas coming from the grapes to be respected as much as now. Most of the nuances came from the local climate and terrain and the making and aging, so the variety was much less decisive than it is now.

It is also true that the incorporation of new producing countries, such as California or Australia, made it fashionable to make the varieties explicit, given that these places had no other relevant information to put on the label to let the consumer know what kind of wine they offered. And that's how European producers discovered that the wine of a lifetime, made with Grenache, Macabeu or Monestrell, suddenly became a prestigious "monovarietal of Grenache", despite the fact that at the time wines made with a blend or blend of several varieties were still much more common.

And why is the debate so fierce and arouses so many passions? Well, very easy: The wineries, even the winegrowers, are companies with logical economic interests and the vines are woody plants with an estimated lifespan of a century or more, which are not productive until the third or fourth year after planting and which reach optimal quality from ten. So it can be an economic downgrade for a winery or winegrower who has opted for foreign varieties, which suddenly, after twenty years ago seemed to be the salvation of the sector and the most profitable bet, now the feeling is popularized that - at best - these are wines that are not "fashionable" and at worst, that the wines made with these varieties are not of quality.

On the other hand, those who have opted for indigenous varieties, or who simply keep them because at the time they did not have the financial capacity to replace them with foreign ones, logically defend their choice. In fact, a large part of the original success of the renaissance, at the beginning of the eighties, of Priorat wines is based precisely on the fact that at the time when the planting of vines of foreign varieties became popular, the Priorat was a depressed region, which had been left out of the Penedès winemaking success, which made it impossible for the impoverished local winegrowers to replant and replace the old Grenache and Carignan vines by others of more productive young people and of "fashionable" varieties.

Thus, when the already legendary group of "pioneers" or "magnificents" of the Priorat decided to produce high-level wines in this region, they did so with an impressive heritage of old vines of these native varieties. Another example is Terra Alta, where the winegrowers spent many years lamenting - and having a very bad time financially - for not belonging to the DO Cava and not being able to sell their grapes to the winegrowers from Penedes. This led them to preserve a large vineyard of white Grenache, with adult vines and low production, which at this time it is only logical that they try to increase their value.

The truth is that in a globalized world, uniqueness is an added value. So the fact of having local autochthonous varieties, which differentiate and give a unique personality to Catalan wines from various places, is an opportunity that cannot be passed up.
For example, the trepat grape in the Conca de Barberà, the Xarello in the Penedès, the Macabeu in Tarragona, the white Grenache in Terra Alta, the black Grenache and the Carignan in Priorat, Montsant and Empordà, where, in addition, the white Carignan, the picapoll and the mandón in Pla de Bages or the white raisin in Alella are also being recovered, in addition to the trilogy of cava: Macabeu, xarel·lo and parellada, is a unique heritage that must be valued. It is certainly for this reason that the DO Costers del Segre are working on the recovery of the variety found.