Condado de Huelva - The Discovery of America Wines

The Discovery of America Wines

There are historical documents which date the first shipment of wine from the Condado de Huelva to the West Indies in January 1502. This wine was worth 1,422 "maravedíes" and left Seville for La Española in the same fleet as Fray Nicolás de Ovando. This exporting tradition was to last for several centuries, reaching a peak in the 16th century.

The second half of the 18th century marked the start of the decline of wine trade to the West Indies from the port of Seville, due to the transfer of the Casa de Contratación to Cadiz. The wines of the Condado were now sent to the ports of Cadiz, Puerto Real, Puerto de Santa María and Sanlúcar, from where they were shipped to the Americas.

The end of the century saw the start of the arrival and settling down of many wine families from La Rioja, among them that of Juan Ramón Jiménez, who were to usher in a new period of prosperity which would last for most of the 19th century. At the end of this century however, the phylloxera plague reached the Condado, along with the rest of Europe, and the area would remain depressed until the 1920s.

A recovery started once resistant rootstock began to be used but the wines of the area had lost their prestige of the previous centuries and had to make do supplying domestic demand until well into the 20th century.

Nevertheless, conscious of the need to produce quality wine and in an attempt to recover the reputation of former times, the Huelva Denominación de Origen was created on 10 May 1962, and in 1963 by order of the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture the Statutes of the Condado de Huelva D.O. were approved, with the aim of promoting the excellence of the Wines of the Discovery Of America.

Another step on the road to wine quality and tradition in the Condado de Huelva was the recent creation of the Vinagre del Condado de Huelva D.O., approved on 31 July 2002. On the same date the statutes of the 40 year old Condado de Huelva D.O. were updated.