Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/913027
{ SOMMjournal.com } 47 The Global Garnacha Summit will take place on April 24 at the Culinary Institute of America at Copia in Napa, California. More than 100 people from the trade will attend this all-day event, which will include two seminars, a walk-around tasting and food pairing, and a blind-tasting competition. Attendees will meet and learn from leading producers of Garnacha-based wines from around the world and explore how to promote and sell these wines to the end-consumer with top sommeliers. For more information, visit globalgarnachasummit.com. Producers: If you would like to participate on a panel or present your wines at this event, contact Meridith May at MMay@sommjournal.com. Aendees: If you are a qualified sommelier, wine director, wine retailer, F&B director, or restaurateur, send an email with your address and job title to Meridith May at MMay@sommjournal.com. The exclusive international conference will include produc- ers from Spain, France, and California, among others. Cariñena and other key regions will discuss all aspects of the grape: how it's grown, the styles of wine it produces both alone and in blends, how to market it, and more. Scientists and winemak - ers can also engage with sommeliers, educators, and retailers through a seminar and tasting focused on exploring topics like Garnacha and food pairings, the variety of wines made from the grape, and their ready appeal to consumers. Sommeliers will likely be intrigued by the more interactive items on the itinerary, including a blind- tasting competition in which the winner receives scholarship funds to GuildSomm, along with discus - sions of key points in marketing Garnacha-based wines and a tasting of Garnacha wines grouped by vine - yard altitude. Cariñena is a logical nexus for the discussion, since it fea- tures some of the oldest Garnacha vineyards in the world. Giving Credit to Cariñena Located midway between Barcelona and Madrid, Cariñena is a land of hot sun and rocky landscapes where Garnacha has prospered for centuries. Altitudes range between 1,300–2,800 feet, where the heat gives way to slightly cooler temperatures. Unfortunately, the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s took a heavy toll on the region and pushed many people from the countryside into cities, causing Cariñena's vineyards to decline in the years after World War II. The hillsides, though generally preferred by winemakers, were harder to work and produced less quantity, so they were first to be targeted under the fascist Franco regime. Thankfully, despite some losses, many older vines weathered the political and natural transitions. Cariñena is still home to more richly-expressive old-vine Garnacha than any other region in Spain. According to Raúl Igual, an Aragón resident who's been named twice as Spain's best sommelier, "there was a push to revisit vineyards in general" in the country by the 1970s. "Co-ops gave growers an incentive to care for their vine - yards by providing a consistent market for their grapes and paying for quality," he explains. Up until then, the impres- sion and reputation of Cariñena within Spain was fairly low—and nonexistent outside the country—but Igual says that "thanks to a number of factors, including encourage - ment from the EU, growing international interest in wine, and the search for interesting wines at a low price, the 1990s saw a growth in both the export market and resources expended at home." In a sense, Garnacha powered the recuperation of much of Spain's wine industry. With that recovery, however, came the unusual re-structuring of Cariñena production in which nearly 3,000 growers work 35,000 acres of vineyards. That means most of these vineyard plots are small, so nearly all the wine is made by three co-ops: Bodegas San Valero, founded in 1944; Bodegas Paniza, founded in 1952; and Grandes Vinos y Viñedos, a hybrid co-op and amalgamation of seven wineries established in 1997 under one technical director. "The co-ops gave grow - ers an incentive to care for their vineyards by providing a market for their grapes and paying for quality," Igual says. This structure also provides an enviable cohesion to wine production and marketing in the region while guaranteeing the preservation of a stunning number of older vineyards. Head-pruned vines that are anywhere from 40–50 years old stand like armies of bark-clad sentinels protecting an ancient landscape. They are the norm across much of Cariñena, and Bodegas Paniza controls one 200-acre plot planted in 1906. All these years later, as Cariñena steps to the fore as a longtime producer of world-class Garnacha—and the focal point of the Global Garnacha Summit next year—it seems like the region may finally be getting its due.