Wineries in the mountains of Malaga

Wineries in Malaga

If we travel to the city of Malaga, from anywhere in the eastern half of the Iberian Peninsula, we will run into the Montes de Málaga Natural Park, a mountain formation with heights ranging between 80 and 1032 meters above sea level from the highest peak, called Cresta de la Reina. In this area, oddly enough, we will find a large number of wineries. Wineries in the mountains of Malaga?

Currently, the landscape of Los Montes is mainly characterized by the presence of pine trees (pine trees, resin trees, but, above all, carrascos), as well as trees typical of the Mediterranean forest: oaks, cork oaks and galls. It might seem like that landscape hasn't evolved in centuries.

But nothing could be further from the truth. A brief analysis of ethnological assets and their associated toponymy reveals a peculiar fact: the high number of wineries, buildings with the necessary structures for the production of wine. What is the explanation for the fact that there are so many, in an area where we practically don't see vines?

A Little Bit of History

To understand it, we have to go back several centuries. In 1487, the Christian conquest of the area by the Catholic Monarchs was completed. The distribution of lots of land to the winners meant that, in the search for greater economic profitability, the traditional Mediterranean forest was replaced by vines.

The grapevine developed greatly in Malaga between the 16th and 19th centuries, with an intense wine trade both with the rest of Spain and with the European continent. In the middle of the 18th century, the golden age of this crop, the tsarina of Russia, Catherine the Great, was so pleased with the product that she ordered its importation exempted from taxes, favoring trade with Russia. But another fact is enough to put into perspective the importance of the Malaga vineyard: La Rioja, a territory dedicated par excellence today to the production of wine, has about 52,000 hectares of vineyards; in 1881, the area dedicated to this cultivation in Malaga was 65,000 ha, with almost a thousand farms with wineries.

But around this time, an event occurred that would completely change the landscape: in 1878, the first outbreak of phylloxera in the area appeared in the Indiana mill, and from there it would devastate the entire vineyard in the mountains in just a few years. As an alternative, the olive and almond trees that can be seen today were planted, most of them no longer in production.

At the same time, to put an end to the overflows of the Guadalmedina River and the recurrent floods that devastated the city of Malaga -precisely since the Mediterranean forest began to be eliminated in the 16th century to plant vineyards- it was decided to repopulate the mountains with carrasco pine, which offers great protection to eroded soils. In addition to contributing to the solution of the problem, it was indirectly caused that over the years the mountains recovered the oaks, cork oaks and gall oaks that had once populated their horizon.

Conclusions

All of this shapes the landscape as we know it today. And it leads us to an interesting reflection: the enormous importance of the mill as a model for the articulation of the settlement of the territory of the Montes de Málaga, since these buildings also fulfilled a residential function in addition to the productive one.

One more reason not to forget and let this legacy die, a silent witness of entire generations of families that made this territory their own and that today, long after, still has many things to tell anyone who knows and wants to pay attention to it.