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Wines from Malaga province are booming after years of hard graft
Food and drink

Wines from Malaga province are booming after years of hard graft

With the grape harvest under way, local wineries are expecting this to be an exceptional year in terms of quality

Lorena Cádiz

Monday, 7 October 2024, 11:57

With the grape harvest now in full swing, the wineries in the province of Malaga are expecting this to be an exceptional year, not in terms of quantity, but in terms of quality. This year's weather, with good rainfall at key moments but never too much, has benefitted the fruit on the vines and will therefore benefit the wines made from it. "The wine from this harvest promises a lot, now we have to know how to sell it," say the winemakers.

The marketing of Malaga wines has been an arduous task that began many years ago. There was constant effort from the industry to position itself in a market with a very high level of competition. For the last eight years José María Losantos has been the president of the regulatory council for the Malaga designation of origin (DOP) brand, which includes Sierras de Málaga wines and Pasas de Málaga sultanas. His view is that many advances have been made in the last 25 years despite the many factors that have worked against them.

Carpe Diem Winery. Located in the Virgen de la Oliva cooperative in Mollina. SUR

To begin with, only since a year ago have all the wines produced in the province now acquired a designation of origin as, until then, there were several areas that were left out of carrying the recognised brand. In total, there are 56 bodegas in Malaga province, 24 of which are in Ronda, one of the main wine-producing areas. The province is divided into five areas: La Axarquía, Montes de Málaga, Málaga, Manilva and Ronda.

This means a tremendous geographical spread, which also means that the reality from one area to another changes a lot, among other things because of the grape variety that prevails in each area and the types of wine made there. "They are completely different wines. There are the more traditional areas, with a history of making sweet wine, and others that are more modern."

Another difference between one winery and another is size, the vast majority being small-scale producers, with the exception of a few that reach a large production volume.

Within this reality, the truth is that "Malaga from 2001 until now has gone from being an area that traditionally made sweet wines to one that makes a wide range of wines, which has greatly expanded the catalogue in terms of hospitality and sales," explains Losantos. This has been accompanied by "an immense promotional effort to make them known" because, without this promotion, "the consumer would not understand that we were offering a Malaga wine to compete with a Rueda, Rioja or Ribera wine and that it was even sold at a higher price because it was made in a small winery, with extreme quality, but with higher costs than those of a large production area." Even so, 25 years after starting this battle, "it is now rare to find a restaurant in Malaga that does not have a local wine. Malaga's gastronomy is recognising that great wines are made in the area and that they can compete with those from abroad", says Losantos.

This does not prevent the fact that, with only three million kilos of wine production, Malaga wines continue to have a very small representation within a sector that has areas with a great deal of weight in the national economy.

Still, wine tourism is another of Malaga's great allies. "It is the great line of work and business in which we are now moving forward," says Losantos. "We know that of all the tourists who visit us, seven million come looking for good food and wine tourism, which makes it an interesting line of business." Losantos goes on to mention that practically all the wineries in the province are now doing something in wine tourism to a greater or lesser extent.

Businesses going back generations

"A wine is a living thing, it is born, it grows and dies. A wine tells stories, whenever it is opened it is because there is a celebration. This is a beautiful profession, it is worth it." So says Juan Muñoz from Bodegas Muñoz Cabrera in La Axarquía. With these words he explains the fact that his family has been dedicated to wine for several generations. His business has a guaranteed future too because his children and their cousins are already part of the company. This case represents a good part of the wineries in Malaga, as most of them are family-owned and are inherited generation after generation.

Doña Felisa winery in Ronda

José María Losantos is, in addition to being the president of the regulatory council for Malaga wines and more, the owner of the Doña Felisa winery in Ronda. His story differs from that of most winemakers in the area because he did not come to the sector through family tradition. He and his wife are from the north of Spain, from La Rioja. It was due to work circumstances that they came to the Costa del Sol in 1985. He was a merchant seaman by profession and for a few years they both started several businesses. "In 1999 we decided that, instead of being on the coast, which was a bit stifling, we were going to look for a refuge inland." It was then that they found a farm in Ronda and started planting vineyards.

The business started with five hectares and produced 25,000 bottles of wine. Today they have just opened a second, larger winery with a capacity of 500,000 bottles, although they are currently bottling 200,000 and have 60 hectares of vineyards.

Antonio Muñoz Cabrera winery in the Axarquía

The Antonio Muñoz Cabrera winery is located in the Axarquía area and will be 100 years old in 2027. It produces "traditional wines" from Malaga. According to the company's manager, Juan Muñoz, they sell them to different parts of the country, but mainly in their own region.

In 2015, the company that manages the Dimobe winery decided to move forward with its business and took a 50% stake in the company Viñedos Verticales, located on the same premises as the winery. The other half of the company is managed by the Valencian oenologist (winemaker) Vicente Inat. During this time they have restored land for planting, planted those vines and today they are producing 45,000 bottles that are already exported to 16 countries.

Hard work: manual labour

Juan Muñoz is a firm advocate of the wine made in La Axarquía because "it is different from the rest of the world." He explains that "as the land is on a slope, where not even mules can work, the work cannot be mechanised", which means that everything is done manually, practically, by hand, producing a high quality wine.

Moreover, "we have grapes at different altitudes, in different locations, with different temperatures, which means that we start cutting in July and finish in mid-October, giving rise to a smoother process, which allows for many different wines."

Muñoz acknowledges that this wine comes onto the market at a higher price than that generated in other large production areas of Spain. Even so, he assures us that "the price is not the problem", what we have to do is "find the right customer."

With this in mind, Dimobe believes that Malaga wines are going through a good period. "We are growing in sales in the province, so now, when a new restaurant opens, the first thing they do is look for Malaga wine, the local product."

Bodegas Carpe Diem in Mollina

Germán Luna is CEO of the Virgen de la Oliva cooperative located in Mollina, the largest in the province. It has 1,200 members, 400 hectares of vineyards and 7,000 hectares of olive groves.

This cooperative has twelve varieties of wine on the market. Like the rest of the wineries, Luna acknowledges that this year they are facing an "excellent campaign" in terms of quality.

One of the great advances the cooperative has made in recent years, as he explains, has been in marketing. They used to sell in bulk and started bottling under the trade name of Bodegas Carpe Diem, a line of business that is going very well, to the point that they have expanded their facilities with a new bottling line at the cooperative.

"A wine is a living thing, it is born, it grows and dies. A wine tells stories, whenever it is opened it is because there is a celebration. This is a beautiful profession, it is worth it." So says Juan Muñoz, from Bodegas Muñoz Cabrera in La Axarquía.

With these words he explains the fact that his family has been involved in the wine business for several generations and that the future is guaranteed because his children and nephews and nieces are already part of the company. This case represents a good part of the wineries in Malaga, as most of them are family-owned and inherited generation after generation.

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