Wine and the Spanish Civil War: An interview with José Luis Rodríguez Martínez of the Cepas Viejas podcast

José Luis Rodríguez Martínez, presenter of the Cepas Viejas podcast, discusses the role of wine in the Spanish Civil War.

José Luis Rodríguez Martínez is a journalist, an expert in communications and branding, and a writer with the Spanish Wine Collective. He curates Cepas Viejas, a podcast that explores the place of wine and vine in the history of Spain and Latin America. He is also the presenter of a new series, Historias del vino, on Radio 5 of Spain’s national radio network (RNE).

In the latest episode of the podcast, El vino en combate: La Guerra Civil Española, José Luis explores the key role that wine played in the conflict. Bill Bolloten interviews José Luis to find out more.

What is the Cepas Viejas podcast?

Cepas Viejas is a Spanish-language podcast dedicated to telling some of the most exciting and amazing stories in the history of Spain and Latin America, stories in which vineyards and wine have played a leading role.

The podcast delves into the past so that listeners may learn about the social, political and economic role that viticulture has played in Hispanic culture.

It aims to be a thought-provoking and immersive project, covering different historical periods. For example, Roman Hispania, Al-Ándalus and the Middle Ages, the conquest and colonisation of the Americas, the former Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (also known as the Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires) and the navigation across the Pacific Ocean in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

The podcast uses music, sounds and voices from the different periods and places portrayed.

There are an enormous number of books on the civil war that cover so many aspects. But there has been little focus on its impact on wine production and consumption. Why did you decide to research this area?

I decided to tackle the subject of wine in relation to the Spanish Civil War because, on the one hand, the aim of Cepas Viejas is to rediscover stories that help us understand our history from different and original angles. Furthermore, this conflict was a decisive event in our history, to the point that it remains key to understanding present day Spain.

My interest also stems from the stories my grandparents told me, as well from my own reading of works of history and novels that focus on the war. In all these aspects, wine was present, even if it was in the background.

In our culture, wine has always been more than just something to be enjoyed. It has been and continues to be an important part of our diet, something that binds us as a society. In a context such as that of the Civil War, wine was often the only companion in the soldiers' trenches and a ‘refuge’ for the population in the rearguard, something that connected them to normality, family life and the land.

A moment of solace and camaraderie on the Republican front.

And there is a third, much more personal reason for this episode: it is a part of history that has always fascinated me since I was very young. I have always been drawn to stories full of secrets, and stories about the fight against injustice. What happened during the war and in the post-war period was still a taboo subject in many families when I was a schoolboy. My parents' generation generally knows very little about the conflict. Ignorance and silence were two of the strategies that people adopted to protect themselves from the dictatorship.

What were some of the main consequences for vineyards and wine production after the coup in 1936?

The Civil War left deep scars on the Spanish wine industry. It took the country between two and three decades to recover pre-war levels of wine production, export and consumption.

It is estimated that the war caused production to fall by half, to between 10 and 12 million hectolitres (a unit of capacity equal to one hundred litres) per year. Some 300,000 hectares of vineyards were left uncultivated due to a lack of labour, the destruction of infrastructure or as a direct result of the fighting. In some areas, up to 40% of cultivated land was lost.

Of the 3 million hectolitres of Spanish wine that had previously been sold abroad, only 500,000 hectolitres were exported by the end of the war.

Wine consumption per person also fell by half.

Did wine consumption have an important role in the life of soldiers in the Republican army, as well as in the ranks of Franco’s Nationalist rebels?

Wine was a constant companion for soldiers in the conflict. It’s true that it wasn’t great quality wine, and was often diluted, but it was a key part of the daily diet in the trenches. In fact, soldiers’ rations included more wine than the civilian population in the rearguard could usually afford.

Soldiers in the Republican army at the front line

In situations of extreme cold, such as in the battle of Teruel, where temperatures reached 20 degrees below zero, wine helped to keep the body warm. And in some field hospitals, due to the lack of medical supplies, it was used as a disinfectant and even as an anaesthetic to alleviate the pain of wounds or before a traumatic operation, such as the amputation of a leg.

But, above all, wine was an element of camaraderie, of companionship, and its consumption was almost a ritual during pauses in fighting, or before combat.

Soldiers eating and drinking during a pause in the fighting.

Foreigners who fought in the International Brigades on the Republican side, and correspondents and writers like George Orwell or Ernest Hemingway who took part in the conflict, describe wine as a symbol of unity in the most difficult moments.

Did wine have any role in the different types of propaganda used by both sides?

Yes, without a doubt. In official Republican propaganda, and on the posters of trade unions and left-wing political parties, wine was presented as the fruit of the union between the people and the land, as a symbol of workers' cooperation and as an emblem of the defence of traditions against fascism.

‘Rural worker: This is your place’ . CNT-AIT poster, 1936.

There were also more extreme interpretations, especially on the part of the most fanatical anarchists, in which wine was associated with the vices of bourgeois society, as something that needed to be banned. But they were in the minority, because, as we have noted already, wine culture is deeply embedded in the Spanish DNA.

‘Worker! Vice will drive you to despair and madness. Avoid it.’ CNT-AIT poster, 1936

On the Francoist side there were also some moral dilemmas. Franco himself was a teetotaler, and during his time as an officer in Africa he even prohibited the consumption of alcohol among troops.

Yet among the Nationalist rebels, wine soon became associated with wellbeing, celebration and strength, all the while becoming increasingly unavailable to those in the Republican ranks.

Wine brands emerged that used Nationalist flags and symbols on the label, as well as slogans supporting Franco’s coup d'état. Some even had the names of the Falange and Requeté, movements that had supported Franco’s rebellion.

‘Tío Pepe is the wine of the soldiers of Spain’. Pro-Nationalist advertising from González Byass.

Did the scarcity of wine play any role in the development of the black market?

Absolutely. In areas loyal to the Second Republic, the progressive loss of productive land and the economic blockade caused the price of food and drink to rise by between 300% and 500%.

Although the authorities tried to intervene in the market to control prices and organise distribution, the truth is that wine soon became a luxury product that was trafficked on the black market. For example, in Barcelona, ​​a litre of wine that officially cost three pesetas could be sold on the black market for 10 pesetas.

Many producers and traders hoarded wine, hiding it from the government to be able to speculate with it. Sometimes, however, it was simply ordinary families looking to exchange wine for other basic goods.

A litre of wine came to cost ten times more than a kilo of potatoes, more than twice as much as a kilo of chickpeas and the same as a dozen eggs.

Official documents from the time highlight how, among the confiscated products smuggled into a Madrid besieged by the coup plotters, the most common were alcoholic beverages.

For example, of the 2,500 clandestine loads stopped by the Republic’s surveillance battalions in October 1938, 6% consisted solely of wine. Amongst the various types of smuggled goods, only wheat was more valuable than wine.

Stall selling wine, liquor, and tobacco, Aragon Front, 1938.

Did the civil war have any long-term consequences for wine production in Spain? Are any of those impacts still present today?

Yes, apart from the damage I’ve already mentioned, there were also some lasting positive effects resulting from the conflict.

For example, it became widely accepted that ​​wine was something rooted in our culture that needed to be protected, it was seen as the embodiment of endurance, belonging and attachment to the land. All this today remains symbolic of Spanish wine culture.

The postwar hardship also led to the recovery of winemaking techniques and grape varieties that had been partially abandoned, such as the use of clay jars or the planting of vines in bush form.

Due to the experience of cooperatives and collectives on the Republican side, a much more social and collaborative vision of the wine sector developed.

Also, on the side that remained loyal to the Republic, women gained an enhanced role in wine production, management and sales operations, from which they had previously been excluded. Women’s participation remained in the collective consciousness.

Wine harvest in Valdepeñas, 1959

What are you planning to cover next on the Cepas Viejas podcast?

The next episode, which I have already started working on, deals with the rise of wine in Argentina between 1870 and 1930. It’s a fascinating period characterised by migration, questions of national identity, liberal agro-export polices, investment in railway transport, the incorporation of European winemaking techniques and a host of innovations that have made this country a winemaking power. And, above all, that have made wine an Argentinian national product, with Malbec and Torrontés as leading grape varieties.

The following episode will deal with the birth of the wine industry in Spain in Roman times, in what they called Hispania, which lasted approximately from the 2nd century BCE to the 4th century CE.

There will also be one on the distribution and consumption of wine amongst the crews of Spanish warships in the 18th century, the so-called Royal Armada This will be an interesting episode, as we will see that it was in fact not at all common for sailors to be drunk, at least not on Spanish vessels. The supply of wine was tightly controlled and only administered in accordance with strict rules and regulations.

After this I will definitely be covering the ancestral craft in Spain of making clay amphorae for the ageing and fermentation of wine.