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The Tartessians, who lived on the Iberian Peninsula in 600 BC, can be described as the country’s original winegrowers. However, it was the Romans, who brought selected vines from Etruria (Tuscany) to Baetica, today’s Andalusia, who popularised wine from the province of Hispania throughout the Roman Empire. Fearing that this popular export product could become too much competition for the local winegrowers, the rapidly developing winegrowing in Hispania was limited by decree and the quantities were rationed. This law, introduced by Emperor Domitian, was only abolished by Emperor Probus in the middle of the 3rd century. Despite the religious ban on alcohol imposed by Islam, wine consumption in Moorish Spain was part of good manners and it can be argued that traditional wine production was born during Arab rule.

The wine trade, which was initially in the hands of Jews and Mozarabs, passed to the monks in the Middle Ages. Many Cistercian and Cluniac orders contributed to both the spread of viticulture and the production of wine. The large-scale viticulture that began in the 18th century, particularly in Andalusia, La Rioja and Catalonia, ended in the late 19th century with the phylloxera plague. The first grapes could not be harvested again until 1920. Modern viticulture in Spain began in the 1940s – primarily in Andalusia and La Rioja. At the end of the 1960s, winegrowers from Catalonia, La Rioja and Ribera del Duero blended new grape varieties imported from abroad with local grapes and popularised Spanish wines worldwide. There are 4 quality classes in Spain:

• Vino De Mesa (VdM) refers to ordinary table wine.
• Vino De La Tierra (VdlT) is a country wine that must carry this predicate on the label.
• The designation Denominación De Origen (D.O.) on the front label indicates that it is a quality wine with a predicate. An additional label on the back is a further sign of quality.
• Denominación De Origen Calificada (D.O.Ca.) is the highest predicate level, created in 1991, which has only been awarded once so far (La Rioja).

In Spain, wines are only released when they are “ready to drink”. A differentiated system of age designations informs the consumer by reading the label whether the wine is young or mature.

The 4 quality grades for Spanish wine are as follows:

• Vino Del Año/Joven is a simple, inexpensive cask or bottled wine with no minimum ageing period.
• The designation CRIANZA indicates that it is a barrel-aged wine with a minimum ageing period of six months.
• RESERVA is a good wine with a statutory ageing period of at least three years.
• GRAN RESERVA is a very good wine from the best vintages with an ageing period of at least five years, of which two years in barrels.

After the collapse of the Roman Empire around 470 and with the beginning of the migration of peoples, the Iberian Peninsula became a settlement and transit area for numerous Germanic peoples such as the Alans, Vandals, Suebi and Visigoths. The latter remained permanently and chose Toledo as their capital in 507. The Catholic faith was made the state religion at the 3rd Council of Toledo. At the beginning of the 8th century, power struggles, disputes over the throne, social problems and poor harvests led to the weakening of their rule. In 711, the Berber army under the leadership of Tarik Ibn Sijad landed at Gibraltar and defeated the army of the last Visigoth king Roderich. This marked the end of Visigothic rule and the beginning of almost 800 years of Moorish rule (711-1492).