Competing with Champagne. The Spanish Sparkling Wine Industry before the Spanish Civil War

Abstract

During the last thirty years the Spanish sparkling wine industry has succeeded to get relevant presence in the international wine market. Thus the two entrepreneurial groups that are the leaders of the industry have opened a large number of commercial branches in the main international markets. Furthermore, these groups have built cellars in the most well-known wine-producing regions. The successful recent path has moved the author to research about the origins of this sector and its evolution in its childhood age. This article shows the influence of the protectionist policy adopted by the Spanish government in the consolidation of this industry in Spain at the end of XIXth century and the beginning of the XXth. The fall of French champagne exports from the First World War onwards and the rise of the per head income in Spain during the tens and twenties of the XXth made possible an acceleration in the growth of this industry, that stretched till the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.