SPANISH WHITE WINE AND GRAPE VARIETIES.
Spain has the world’s largest land area planted with vines and is currently the third largest producer of wine. This lower yield is caused partly through the wider spacing of the old vines (lower density planting to avoid the vines competing for resources )planted on the dry, infertile soils found in many of the wine regions.
N5 Group & The Mediterranean Supermarket offer a great selection of wine for sale some products are readily recognisable coming from world renowned wineries – we also proudly promote some excellent wines produced by small artisan and undiscovered wineries, who are consistently producing fine wines that achieve high scores by wine experts such as Robert Parker.
View the finest selection of Spanish White Wine, buy online 
N5 Group & The Mediterranean Supermarket with their exclusive partnerships and promotional expertise bring to you one of the best selections of wine and Mediterranean products – bringing a little bit of Mediterranean sunshine into your hostelry business.
There are over 400 native varieties of vines although the majority of the wines produced use a popular selection of approx. 20 varieties, including Macebo, Parellada, Garnacha, Monastrell, Tempranillo, Xarel.lo.
Spain has, as in France a strict regulatory body ensuring that the quality of the wine is maintained and wines are granted DO - Denominación de Origen. This is operated on a similar basis to the AOC – Appellation d' Origine Protégée, there are currently five distinct groups within the DO, including Vino de Mesa and Vino de la Tierra.
More distinctly with Spanish wines there are terms that are applied to certain varieties and relate to its vintage or age. The more commonly used terms are:
- Crianza red wines where they have been aged for 2 years with at least 6 months in oak barrels.
- Cianza whites and rosés should be aged for at least 1 year with 6 months in oak barrels.
- Reserva red wine aged for at least 3 years with at least 1 year in oak.
- Reserva whites and rosés – aged at least 2 years with 6 months in oak.
- Gran Reserva reds – aged at least 5 years with 18 months in oak and a minimum of 36 months in the bottle.
- Gran Reserva whites and rosés must be aged for at least 4 years with at least 6 months in oak.
There are many wine producing regions in Spain including Rioja, Priorat, Penedes, Montsant.
N5 Group & The Mediterranean Supermarket.
N5 Group & The Mediterranean Supermarket Spanish wine importers, providers of Chardonnay, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Macabeo, Parellada, Xarel.lo varieties amongst others. Specialists in Spanish red wine, Spanish white wine and Spanish sparkling wines, Cava and Rosé. Carte Blanche importers and supplying the hostelry profession. Register online with Carte Blanche at carteblanche.shop to browse our products, prices, and delivery times.
N5 Group & The Mediterranean Supermarket registered company in Ireland, for sale, France, Spain, USA, for sale, and U.K. We guarantee competitive prices for Spanish wine for sale in Ireland, for sale, UK, and USA, for sale.
Buy Spanish white wine, Buy Spanish red wine, Buy Spanish sparkling Cava, Buy Champagne.
Grape Types:
Airen, Chardonnay, Macabeo, Malvasia, Parellada, Verdejo, Viura, Xarel-lo, Sauvignon Blanc.
Grape Type – Airén:
Carte Blanche wine importers Ireland, for sale, UK and USA, for sale, importers of Airén wines. View our selection of Spanish Airén wines – at very competitive prices, supplied direct from the grower.
Airén is a variety of Vitis vinifera, a white grape commonly used in winemaking. This grape is native to Spain where it represents about 30% of all grapes grown. As of 2004, Airén was estimated to be the world's most grown grape variety in terms of planted surface, at 306,000 hectares (760,000 acres), although it is almost exclusively found in Spain. The grapes have a cotton-like bud burst, which is bronze or yellowish in colour, with light reddish edge, and not very intense at the tip and have a trailing growing habit. The leaves of the Airén are average in size and have a pentagonal shape. The lower lateral sinuses are less marked than the upper ones and the upper face of the leaf is yellowish green in colour while the lower face is velvety. The grape bunch is large in size and has an average compactness. It can grow in two different shapes: cylindrical or as a long cone. The grapes are large and spherical and have a yellowish colour. The grapes are late to bud burst and also late to ripen. They yield about 4.5 to 6 kg per vine. Further, this grape is very resistant to drought and the base buds are fertile and thus resists very short pruning and still have acceptable yields. Airen in Japan, for sale |ese means Perfect Love or soul mate. In Chinese it means lover. In Catalonia this grape type is known as Forcayat.
Grape Type – Chardonnay:
Carte Blanche wine importers Ireland, for sale, UK and USA, for sale, importers of Chardonnay wines. View our selection of Spanish Chardonnay wines – at very competitive prices, supplied direct from the grower.
Chardonnay is one of the most widely-planted grape varieties, with over 160,000 hectares (400,000 acres) worldwide, ranking second only to Airen amongst white wine grapes and is planted in more wine regions than any other grape. It is a green-skinned grape variety used to make white wine and originated from the Burgundy wine region of eastern France but is now grown wherever wine is produced. The Chardonnay grape itself is very neutral, with many of the flavours commonly associated with the grape being derived from such influences as the terroir and how the wine is stored – the oak barrels in which it is fermented or matured. Chardonnay is an important component of many sparkling wines around the world, including Champagne.
Grape Type – Macabeo:
Carte Blanche wine importers Ireland, for sale, UK and USA, for sale, importers of Macabeo wines. View our selection of Spanish Macabeo wines – at very competitive prices, supplied direct from the grower.
Macabeo, a white grape, also called Viura, is northern Spain's most planted white grape variety and, as Maccabeo or Maccabeu has become very popular in France's Roussillon region. The wine produced tends to have a floral characters and relatively low acidity; it also withstands oxidization well. This is one of the reasons why it has been enthusiastically used by the growers of Rioja, where it has all but displaced Malvasia. Spanish plantations stood at near 32,000 hectares (79,000 acres) in 2004 and French plantations at 2,800 hectares (6,900 acres) in
2007. The grape is used to make mildly acidic and young white wines mostly suitable for early consumption or blending with other varieties, both red and white. It is often the main grape of white Rioja and is sometimes blended in small amounts with Tempranillo and red Garnacha, both in unoaked and oaked versions. Macabeu is traditionally blended with Xarel.lo and Parellada to make a sparkling Cava, the best known sparkling wine of Spain. It is also used in the base spirit used to create Obsello Absinthe.
Grape Type – Malvasia:
Carte Blanche wine importers Ireland, for sale, UK and USA, for sale, importers of Malvasia wines. View our selection of Spanish Malvasia wines – at very competitive prices, supplied direct from the grower.
Malvasia is a group of wine grape varieties grown historically in the Mediterranean region, Balearic islands, Canary Islands and the island of Madeira, but now grown in many of the winemaking regions of the world. In the past, the names Malvasia, Malvazia, and Malmsey have been used interchangeably for Malvasia-based wines; however, in modern oenology, "Malmsey" is now used almost exclusively for a sweet variety of Madeira wine made from the Malvasia grape. These grapes are used to produce white (and more rarely red) table wines, dessert wines, and fortified wines of the same name, or are sometimes used as part of a blend of grapes, such as in Vin Santo.
Grape Type – Parellada:
Carte Blanche wine importers Ireland, for sale, UK and USA, for sale, importers of Parellada wines. View our selection of Spanish Parellada wines – at very competitive prices, supplied direct from the grower.
Parellada, a white grape variety, is mainly grown in the Catalunya region of Spain, although also widely planted in the Penedes region. It is mainly used as a blending wine in the production of Cava. Apart from its use in Cava, it is used for blending in young white wines, although some more ambitious oaked blends with Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc are also used. Spanish plantations stood at 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) in 2004. Its good acidity and freshness make these wines extremely suitable for the aperitif. A prime example of this is the micro-distilled Obsello Absinthe which, in addition to being produced in the same region, uses the wine of these grapes in its base spirit.
Grape Type – Verdejo:
Carte Blanche wine importers Ireland, for sale, UK and USA, for sale, importers of Verdejo wines. View our selection of Spanish Verdejo wines – at very competitive prices, supplied direct from the grower.
Verdejo, also known as Verdejo Palido, is a grape of Spain's Rueda region where it is used to make aromatic wines. The grape originated in North Africa, and was spread to Rueda in about the 11th Century. It is also grown in Cigales and Toro. The Verdejo grapes are generally harvested at night. This means that the grapes enter the cellar at the lower night-time temperature of between 10-15 C instead of the daytime temperature which in September can reach as high as 28 or 30 C. Lower temperatures means less oxidation, or browning of the juice. Verdejo wines are aromatic, often soft and full-bodied.
Grape Type – Viura:
Carte Blanche wine importers Ireland, for sale, UK and USA, for sale, importers of Viura wines. View our selection of Spanish Viura wines – at very competitive prices, supplied direct from the grower.
Viura, also called Macabeo in Spanish or Macabeu in Catalan: is a white variety of wine grape.
It is widely grown in the Rioja region of northeastern Spain, the Cava producing areas south of Barcelona, and the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. Spanish plantations stood at near 32,000 hectares (79,000 acres) in 2004 and French plantations at 2,800 hectares (6,900 acres) in 2007. The grape is used to make mildly acidic and young white wines mostly suitable for early consumption or blending with other varieties, both red and white. It is often the main grape of white Rioja and is sometimes blended in small amounts with Tempranillo and red Garnacha, both in un-oaked and oaked versions. Viura is traditionally blended with Xarel.lo and Parellada to make a sparkling Cava, the best known sparkling wine of Spain. It is also used in the base spirit used to create Obsello Absinthe.
Grape Type – Xarel.lo:
Carte Blanche wine importers Ireland, for sale, UK and USA, for sale, importers of Xarel.lo wines.
View our selection of Spanish Xarel.lo wines – at very competitive prices, supplied direct from the grower.
Xarel•lo is a white grape variety of Spanish origin specially grown in Penedès and Catalonia. With Macabeu and Parellada, is one of the three traditional varieties used to make the sparkling wine Cava. Spanish plantations stood at 8,750 hectares (21,600 acres) in 2004, Xarel•lo wine can be strongly flavoured, and is more aromatic than the other two Cava grape varieties. Xarel-lo is also known as Pansa Blanca (Alella) and Xarello.
Grape Type – Sauvignon Blanc:
Carte Blanche wine importers Ireland, for sale, UK and USA, for sale, importers of Sauvignon Blanc wines. View our selection of Spanish Sauvignon Blanc wines – at very competitive prices, supplied direct from the grower.
Sauvignon Blanc is a green-skinned grape variety which originates from the Bordeaux region of France. The grape most likely gets its name from the French word sauvage ("wild") and blanc ("white") due to its early origins as an indigenous grape in South West France. Sauvignon blanc is planted in many of the world's wine regions, producing a crisp, dry, and refreshing white varietal wine. A relatively robust, vigorous vine (one of the reasons it is so popular with viticulturists), Sauvignon adapts readily to all kinds of growing environments. Its early ripening nature means it can be grown in relatively cool climates - while its naturally high acidity allows it to retain some level of freshness in warmer areas. The wine is usually consumed young, as it does not particularly benefit from aging, except for some oak-aged Pessac-Léognan and Graves from Bordeaux that can age up to fifteen years.