Summary
Located in the southern Castilian meseta, some 60 km from Madrid, La Mancha is Spain’s largest denomination of origin, occupying 30,700 km² , and accounting for half of the land area of the provinces it encompasses. The vineyards fall in 182 municipalities: 12 in the province of Albacete, 58 in Ciudad Real, 66 in Cuenca and 46 in Toledo, although certain modifications are underway to exclude areas that are not up-to-date on their registration.
The strength of tradition in the area's viticulture reflects a series of intrinsic and natural conditions that favour grape cultivation and wines with well-defined qualities. La Mancha is ideal vineyard country because, although the yield per hectare is not very high, the quality of fruit, the ripening cycle and the health of the vines are extraordinary.
Long gone is the image of La Mancha as an immense plateau of arid lands that produced great quantities of wine with no thought to its quality. Nowadays, they have undoubtedly won their place among the world's more prestigious wines.
La Mancha is also the world's largest wine producing area, with a total of 191,699 hectares of vineyards, a truly remarkable figure that allows the production of a large proportion of all the wine produced in Spain.
| FACT FILE | |
|---|---|
| CRDO address: | Av. Criptana, 73 - Apartado 194 |
| 13600 Alcázar de San Juan | |
| Ciudad Real | |
| Spain | |
| DO established | 02 July 1976 |
| Last updated | 25 February 2008 |
| Telephone | +34-926-541-523 |
| Fax | +34-926-588-040 |
| consejo@lamanchado.es | |
| Website | www.lamanchado.es |
| Vineyards: | |
| Subzones | - |
| Area under vine | 186,942 ha |
| Altitude of vineyards | 700 m |
| Soil types | Red-brown sandy clay over limestone and chalk |
| Principal grapes (w) | Airén |
| Principal grapes (r) | Cencibel |
| Permitted grapes (w) | Airén, Viura or Macabeo, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc |
| Permitted grapes (r) | Cencibel or Tempranillo, Garnacha, Moravia, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah |
| Experimental grapes (w) | - |
| Experimental grapes (r) | - |
| Organic viticulture | 5,000 ha |
| Climate: | |
| Max. summer temp. | 45°C |
| Min. Winter temp. | -15°C |
| Average rainfall | 300-400 mm annually |
| Average sunshine | 3,000 hours annually |
| Production: | |
| Maximum crop | 11,900 kg/ha – 10,500kg/ha |
| Yield | 70% |
| Equivalent hl/ha | 60 hl/ha (white); 75 hl/ha (red) |
| Production 2005 | 645.693,37 hl |
| Production 2006 | 670,908.87 hl |
| Production 2007 | 672,739.79 hl |
| Wine alcohol content: | |
| White | Min 10% abv, max 14% abv |
| Pink | Min 10% abv, max 14% abv |
| Red | Min 11% abv, max 15% abv |
| Ageing in oak: | |
| Vino Roble | 4 months oak |
| Crianza | 6 months oak |
| Reserva | 12 months oak and 24 months in bottle |
| Gran Reserva | 18 months oak and 42 months in bottle |
| Wineries: | |
| Number of Wineries | 370 |
| Total exports - 2005 | 400,429 hl |
| Total exports - 2006 | 410,511 hl |
| Total exports - 2007 | 437,419 hl |
