wine

The “natural wine” has become fashionable. There is a place where he takes centuries without so much hype: Mass

by

In 83, Juan Pablo II visited the prison of Rebibbia, in Rome, and hugged Mehmet Ali Agcathe man who had tried to kill him a couple of years before the Plaza de San Pedro. In 89, a crowd accompanies the coffins of Jesuit parents killed in El Salvador. In 2016, in the middle of Holy Thursday, Francisco washed the feet of a group of refugees from the center of Castelnuovo di Porto … There are many iconic images around the Catholic Church. But for me the image that has impacted me the most happened a couple of years ago: when I saw the priest of my town, dressed in its clerriman, buying a tetra brick of red wine in the Mercadona. Had he found the origin of Mass wine? I had never wondered where the wine that was used in the Eucharist came from and, I suppose that for that reason, that image left me completely out of charge. And as normal, a question immediately approached me: “Was it possible that this was the wine that was used in Mass?” The answer, in case there is any questions, is: no. And here this article could end: with an anecdote of Berlanga that ends “fish -shaped“But no. Because, little by one that one starts to investigate, the history of sacred wine is really interesting. Sacred wine? Although it is true that the Catholic Church (and Christianity in general) has done a lot to take wine to any corner of the world, the sacred history of this type of broths is very long. In fact, Jesus of Nazareth came to ‘resignify’ a good handful of religious signs of common use. What is true is that it is not causality that most historical vineyards are on ecclesiastical terrain. Nor is it a coincidence that the development of the wine industry is intimately related to the comings and goings of the missionaries. Nor that the Vatican is the country that consumes the most from the world (about 45,000 liters a year for its 800 inhabitants). Wine and church have always been closely linked. And, for that reason, not any wine is worth it. Over the centuries, different criteria have been developed to know if a wine was likely to be used in the Eucharist. It is something that has been discussed extensively even in councils Like Florence of 1438. However, it was not until the nineteenth century when the Church (with the industrialization of the world of wine) began to take the idea of ​​establishing criteria that ensure the liturgical purity of wine. In fact, until 1959, as was the case with other things such as togas or candles, there were ecclesiastical certificates very difficult to achieve. The first certified wine was, in fact, Spanish. Prepared by Augusto de Müller Ruinart de Brimont, an Alsacian Even today is a reference in the sector. Maybe Do not be the best sellingworse is the one who has the most history (and It costs less than seven euros). In search of purity. The current Roman Missal is quite clear Around the wine that can be used: “It must be the result of the mature or passage grapes and without artificial additions such as preservatives, dyes, sugars, clarifying or juices. On the other hand, sulphites such as antioxidants or wine distilled to increase alcohol content, which should not exceed 18 degrees,” are allowed to add. The idea is to produce a wine that looks, in one way or another, which it has been using since time immemorial. The problem is that this means challenges that new wine techniques and enologies try to solve: The natural wine boom is part of the same game. Innovation that a bottle of natural wine can be surprising is still surprising. The color and taste depend on the winery. And from which he buys it. A background lesson. Because beyond the curiosity of who produces a product like this, the history of Mass wine tells us about how technological development is truffled with values, ideologies, religious beliefs and social configurations. Here it is seen in a simple way (the composition of the wine consumed by millions of people is discussed in ecumenical councils), but it is not so different from what operates in the natural wine that so fashionable has been put. Not many of the technological decisions of our day to day. History is always more complicated than it seems. Image | Mateus Campos Felipe In Xataka | Andalusia is very proud of its Holy Week. So much that he wants to start teaching it in schools

The international wine market was already broken, but a single idea has put it against the ropes: 200% tariffs

by

13%. That is the magical figure because, given the uncertainty of what will happen to the tariffs, that is what the “main consumer country in the world“For Spanish wine. In 2024, to get an idea, they were sent 97 million liters valued at almost 400 million of euros. That’s why The announcement of a 200% tariff and the letter of the United States wine alliance (USWTA) recommending “Sorted to US companies that They suspend all the shipments of wine, liquors and beer from the EU “has fallen like a jug of cold water in a sector that was already very scrambled. And that has not even been a big surprise. In December 2024, after Trump’s choice, Exports fired 23%. And, during these months, many Spanish wineries have been protecting preventively anticipating the sending of reserves to American soil. What has surprised has been the entity of the coup: no one expected a 200% tariff and, although was suspended, As I pointed out Jose Luis Lapuente, general director of the Denomination of Origin of Rioja, “much more harmful than tariffs itself is uncertainty, not knowing.” That is precisely what is behind the USWTA letter: despite its efforts so that tariffs do not apply to goods that are already in transit, the US government has refused to give a clear answer what it will happen. If companies do not suspend shipments, they could meet huge losses overnight. “Deep concern” Last Thursday, the Brussels Regions Committee hosted an emergency meeting of the intergroup of wine to ask the commission to “take out the wine from the tariff war.” And, a priori, it seems that the pressures have had an effect because the union left out of his countermeasures to wine, sparkling and the American bourbon. In this context, it is not only to avoid more reprisals from the White House and prevent European wine sales from collapseing in the US, it is about Protect huge investments that the sector (and union) have done in the North American market during the last decade. “The tariffs announced by the US are totally unjustified in the particular case of the wine if we consider that currently the tariff difference between the rates that apply the EU and the US is minimal,” reasoned the general director of the Spanish Federation of Wine, José Luis Benítez. However, we have already seen in recent days that the Trump administration strategy is difficult to understand. In fact, it is a measure that does not convince anyone … “This will be great for wine and champagne businesses in the United States,” Trump wrote when he threatened with the 200%tariff. However, not all American producers They agree. Because, although it is true that the price increases can ‘rekindle’ the interest in the broths of the country, we talk about a fragile sector, overloaded and very touched by the fires and droughts of the main producing area, California. Not only that. As John Williams explained at CNNfounder of Frog’s Leap, a winery in the Californian Valley of Napa, US wineries are just a very small part of the commercial chain. If tariffs harm distributors, the problem will be rapidly generalized. In the end, “we all depend on the same distributors. The health of these companies is important for wineries around the world,” said. … and that can become counterproductive. Because, the American tariff system has peculiarities that can end up running the market completely. The clearest example is that “the US customs and border service. offers reimbursements of certain rights, taxes and fees paid for imported items, provided that the company exports similar articles. ” That is, the big distribution platforms can end up flooding the most expensive European products market as a strategy to compensate for the price of tariffs. Although, in reality, the background problem is another. That world wine is going through a very bad time. In September 2023, Luigi Moio, president of the International Wine Organization, climbed into a gallery in the heart of La Rioja and said “Vineyard’s start was something inevitable.” And it’s not just La Rioja, of course. In France (which can serve us as proxy of what happens in the international sector), already It has been assumed That 100,000 hectares of vineyards will have to be started – in fact, they have launched a plan to start about 30,000. It is the only way that the sector finds for a devilish situation: that the sector does not stop growing, but These floods “They are not enough to cover production costs and farmers’ needs.” And in that context, tariffs arrive. Are we facing a? Image | Chuttersnap | Mika Baumeister Xataka | We already knew that Spanish wine was on its way to collapse. What we didn’t know was that drought was going to accelerate it so much

an increasing problem for the wine industry

by

In early February, The Civil Guard dismantled An international network dedicated to illegal wine from La Rioja. That is, a network dedicated to falsifying wine bottles and selling them in Vietnam and China. The funny thing is that they have operated for years and only the alarm has jumped because a Spanish tourist saw a suspicious bottle in a gourmet store in Vietnam and bought it to bring it to the country and analyze it. A problem that does not stop growing. For years, illicit trade and fraud in the wine sector and spirits keep growing. In 2023, Spanish customs and police authorities seized Almost 15 million liters of illegal drinks. Globally, although there are those who estimate that up to fifth of the wine that is sold could be false, more conservative estimates They say that annual losses in drinks of this type amount to 1,300 million euros. Of course, it is something that worries (and much) the most important wineries who see not only how they lose income, but how the low quality of falsifications affects their brand image. In fact, there are lawsuits specialized in intellectual property that They offer service to the wineries throughout Europe to monitor the market (ON and Offline) and detect this type of falsification. What exactly is that is falsified? To start the same wine. There is Fine fakes that combine lower quality wines To try to pass them through higher bottles, but normally it is about replacing. But there is much beyond the “dilution” and “replacement of ingredients”, there is a lot explained in the Spanish A few years ago Fabián Torres, Director of Business Development of SICPA Spain. Complex. Be that as it may, counterfeiters play with one thing: the world of tastings is a complicated world. Although it seems that it is true that There are supercatters capable of overcoming the most difficult teststhe truth is that for most human beings there are no major differences between wines. Not enough, at least, to detect a falsification achieved. And this has more crumb than it seems. Because many people have begun to ask that why pay a disproportionate amount of money for a flavor profile that, in short, can be achieved “falsified” at a much lower price. The best example is the case of Rudy Kurniawan, perhaps the most famous counterfeit in recent years. After leaving prison in 2021 he has set up a business in which FALSIFY VINES ‘ON DEMAND’. In your case, organize tastings to buy exclusive broths with your own falsifications. Normally, they win their wines. Of “falsified wine” to “duplicate wine”. It is a phenomenon very similar to the calls’duplicated perfumes‘(legal fragrances designed to smell like other design perfumes): we have seen it in supermarkets with Cheap versions of the most popular wines of the moment, like Verdejo frizzante. However, The potential of this type of products It is much greater. After all, we live in a world in which LOS DUPLAS WITHOUT ALCOHOL No They stop growing. We have gone from an industry in which the flavor was inseparable to the historical manufacturing process to a flavor profiles laboratory. And, in Spain, one of the world’s world leaders, this revolution will make the foundations vibrate of the industry. Image | Kelsey Knight | Klara Kulikova In Xataka | If the question is what is the future of wine, more and more Bordeaux wineries are clear: the without alcohol

Filipino rice wine hid a superfood. In the waste we discarded, specifically

by

It is often said that one can be a treasure for another. We have found a new example of this phenomenon, in the Philippines. The country responsible for golden ricea transgenic version of the food devised to replace the vitamin A deficiency, now brings us another product related to this cereal, a “loaded” product of nutrients. And this time with a more “artisanal” process. By -product, but food. A group of researchers has discovered that a material discarded in the Fermentation of the Tapuy, a traditional rice wine of the Philippines, are loaded with antioxidants. The compounds found in the You readwhich is what this residue is called, they were studied in the laboratory resulting in a rejuvenation of the animal models used in the study. The Tapuy. The Tapuy is a drink produced in the Philippines, the result of rice fermentation. The process uses, in addition to rice, a fermentation initiator called Bubod. The resulting residue, You readit has been the main object of the investigation, and is mainly composed of the waste of fermented rice, yeasts and other microbes. The study responsible for the study analyzed how various types of crops resulted in different types of You read. Optimizing nutrients. The team thus found a way to optimize the fermentation process, a specific crop that implied some You read Loaded nutrients. The result contained an abundance of polyphenolscompounds with antioxidant capacity that we can also find in products such as The wine or the chocolate. The team tested the different formulas feeding with them the worms of the species Caenorhabditis Elegans. They observed that an initiator of fermentation with high concentrations of the species Rhizopus oryzae, mucor indicus and Saccharomyces cerevisiaeIt was associated with an important increase in the life expectancy of these animals. They also observed that the worms fed with this residue produced more viable eggs. The details of the research were published in an article in the magazine Discover Food . Of animal to humans. There is still an important step to give, and it is to study how these results can translate into benefits in humans. The worms of the speciesC. ElegansThey are often used in medicine as animal models by some key characteristics such as transparency allows us to see more clearly the biological and biochemical processes in the animal. However, it should always be remembered that what works in animal models does not have to work in humans. Among other reasons because our diet is very varied and the multiple interactions between compounds can dilute their benefits. In Xataka | Some scientists have proposed to solve the big question: is it more “healthy” white wine or red? Image | Phương Nam Gạo / Manila Athenaeum

Is it more “healthy” white wine or red?

by

We have read innumerable articles on wine benefits and risks. Like the rest of alcoholic beverages, the consumption of wine, especially excessive consumption (but not only), has been linked to diverse health problems, from liver problems to cancer. On the other hand, wine also contains beneficial compounds for our health, although these benefits do not necessarily compensate for risks. Analyzing the risk. Of course not all alcoholic beverages have the same impact on our health, and even not all wines have to affect us the same. Now a group of researchers He has studied If red wine is healthier than white, focusing on the impact of these drinks on our risk of cancer. The answer obtained is not. Not only did they find differences between the effects of one or another type of wines on the general risk of cancer, they did not find any effect of the consumption of one and the other came on this risk. They did find differences when studying the impact of white wine on skin cancer. Alcohol and cancer. Alcohol is considered a hallucinogen of group 1, that is, a substance linked to the development of human cancer. The reason is in the fact that our body, when metabolizing ethanol, transforms it into potentially harmful compounds for proteins and DNA, which increases the risk of cancer. Despite this, there is some notion that red wine is healthier, at least compared to white wine. 42 studies. The team conducted a meta -analysis, a quantitative study that explores the results of previous studies to weigh possible discrepancies between them. He did it by taking 42 observational studies, among which they added a total of 96,000 participants. This analysis of scientific literature did not detect significant impacts on the risk of cancer associated with wine consumption, regardless of its color. The details of the analysis were Published in an article In the magazine Nutrients. The case of skin cancer. Yes they detected a difference that was manifested in the long term in the case of skin cancer: the consumption of white wine was related to a 22% increase in the risk of suffering from this type of cancer with respect to the consumption of red wine. “The results of our meta -analysis did not reveal any significant difference between red wine and white wine in general,” explained in a press release Eunyoung Cho, who collided the study. “However, we observe a distinction in regards to the risk of skin cancer. Specifically, the consumption of white wine, but not that of red, was associated with an increase in the risk of skin cancer. ” The team admitted not to know what this difference could cause. The generic consumption of wine could be linked to the possibility that those who consume wine are more likely to activities that are linked to skin cancer such as sunbathing. The problem is that this would not explain the difference between the type of preferred wine. Is it then good wine? It is necessary to have caution when interpreting the results in this regard since meta -analysis only analyzes global results of previous studies. In some contexts, such as the American, wine is a drink linked to Socio -economic situations more favorable. In this type of contexts, wine consumption can also be correlated with greater care in other aspects: healthier food, physical exercise … etc. This could do That the carcinogenic effect of alcohol contained in the wine is compensated, so that, globally, its impact cannot be appreciated through the statistical tools used. In Xataka | The study of two wines from 1,500 years ago illustrates something interesting: choosing one in front of another was already a matter of posture Image | Zachariah Hagy

We already knew that Spanish wine was on its way to collapse. What we didn’t know was that drought was going to accelerate it so much

by

At this point of 2025, say that Spanish wine is on its way to disaster It cannot surprise Nobody. However, it is inevitable that, reading phrases like that, let’s think it is exaggerating. Soon we examine the data, we see that the coup can become huge. Two news that is better understood together. The first is from July 25, 2024: The earliest harvest Within Jerez’s framework since there are historical records. That is to say, For more than 130 years. As the winemakers themselves said, They saw that “In July the grape was already at its optimal point (the 10.5º Baumé demanded) and that if we expected more I was going to lose weight and deteriorate.” The second news is a couple of months later: the production of wine from the United Kingdom has doubled in a very short time and, in fact, the surface planted with vines has increased 75% in the last five years. This is very rare in a place where (despite have vineyards from Roman times and produce commercially since the 60s) the vines have never been good for cold and bad weather. Both news are the beam and the underside of a huge problem: the huge impact that climate change in the main wine regions of Europe has. And, especially, in Spain. A global problem that affects us especially. Traditionally, there are two planetary areas indicated for the cultivation of the vine: the one between the 30th and 50th parallels of the northern hemisphere and that located between the 30th and 40th in the south. The problem is that, like The National Institute for Agronomic Research predicted In France, around 2100 those areas will be completely blurred with the double “very warm” days of the historical average. According to a study published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment In March 2024up to 70% of the current wine -producing regions could face a substantial risk to lose their suitability for viticulture. In that drawer we are. In Spain, as defends happiness in Herralde, researcher at the Institute for Agrifood Research and Technology of Catalonia, towards the end of the century “the water deficit could reach 200 liters per square meter.” That is, in many wine areas “half of the rainwater that is now available in a year may be missing.” Things are changing. “I have gone from harvesting to do it in a short sleeve and always looking at the sky. My father does not remember in all his youth or a hail storm and now they come to us in September shattering the harvest and even in spring, sweeping that of that year And the next one, because it takes all the yolks “, explained in Rioja2 Berta Valgañónfarmer and producer of the denomination of qualified origin Rioja. And when we say that “time is crazy” we are not entirely aware of what it implies. As Olivia García pointed out “In winter it does not snow, (…) in February it is hot and the plants begin to sprout before but the risk of frosts extends to May (…). In spring it hardly rains and summer is totally dry.” The result is that, when “the harvest arrives so hot that the level of sugar and acidity becomes totally unbalanced.” It is not uncommon. “In a reference period from 1972 to 2005 we have found that, for example, in the Penedès region the increase in average annual temperatures has already reached two and a half degrees,” explained of Herralde in the country. Estimates are terrifying. At the end of 2022, the Reading University published a report where it was concluded that “a fifth of the United Kingdom could have adequate climatic conditions to cultivate Chardonnay grapes in 2050”. But instead, “according to A study conducted over 15 years In vineyards from different areas of the world, 90% of current cultivation areas will not be suitable within a few years. “ To this we must add the problem of water. Not only is water missing at very important specific moments, but As Jordi Pastor defendedmost winemakers already grow with an amount of water lower than optimal. As with the olive tree, the agricultural strategy is to migrate production towards irrigation and, in fact, while 20 years ago the percentages of irrigated vine Today I already touched 50%. And yet, the situation is very complicated … With the available data of the denominations of Catalan origin, we can say that sprouting and flowering are being advanced around 11 days compared to half a century ago. But in addition, “the main cycles of the vineyard (sprouting, flowering, curd, envre and harvest) are faster, those phases are shorter.” Is What we saw too Within the framework of Jerez and In the rest of wine areas from Spain, Greece, Italy or southern California. France, much less affected, too He has seen him The ears to the wolf. … that goes beyond the future. This April, Freixenet presented an ERTE for 615 workers for drought. As they explainedit was an “exercise of responsibility” to “guarantee the operability of the business” in the face of grapes due to the lack of rain. Regardless of the details of that specific case, the truth is that the labor, financial and industrial ramifications The problem is here. And he will not go anywhere. How do we do the wine? “Spain will be a little suitable place to make wine, which means that wine production will not become impossible, but it will be increasingly difficult according to the degree of global warming,” defended Sébastien Zitoresearcher at the Institute of Vineyard Sciences and Burgundy Wine. He is right. Therefore, the world of wine Work already in a hurry for looking for solutions. And the truth is that the struggle to maintain profitability is not the only problem. After all, this environmental pressure also attacks the personality itself of the wines. Can Spanish wines survive while being themselves on the way? Image | Trent Erwin | Climate Resanalyzer In … Read more

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.