Jumilla (DO)
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| Official name | D.O. Jumilla |
|---|---|
| Type | Denominación de Origen |
| Country | Spain |
Jumilla is a Spanish Denominación de Origen (DO) for wines that extends over the north of the region of Murcia, including the municipality of Jumilla —from which it takes its name— and the contiguous southeast of the Albacete province (municipalities of Montealegre del Castillo, Fuente-Álamo, Ontur, Hellin, Albatana and Tobarra) in the Castile-La Mancha region.
There are currently 32,000 hectares currently under vines in Jumilla DO, 45% of which are in Murcia and 55% in Albacete. There are around 3,000 grape-growers registered.
During the outbreak of the phylloxera plague in the 19th century the region surprisingly escaped contamination and so entered a period of economic expansion as wine merchants from France came in great numbers to buy wine. For this reason the vines were never regrafted onto resistant from the New World as was the case in the rest of Europe. However, the phylloxera pest unexpectedly struck in 1989, devastating the vineyards and reducing production by 60% over the next five years. Replanting and grafting was slow and expensive but allowed the region to adopt the new methods of grape growing and wine making that were already proving successful in the neighbouring DOs of Alicante and Almansa. Jumilla DO is one of the oldest in Spain having acquired its official status in 1966.
This DO is characterised by wide valleys and plateaus in the presence of mountains. It is a transition zone between the Mediterranean coastal area and the high central plateau of Castile-La Mancha, and so the altitude of the vineyards varies between 400 and 800 m.
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