For over four decades, Maria Jose Nestares’ family has quietly run a vineyard in the northern Spanish region of La Rioja, one of Europe’s largest wine-producing areas.
But about four years ago, when a major turbine maker started building a wind farm next to her winery, she decided to pick a fight with what she sees as a nasty infringement on the otherwise pristine, bucolic community.
“Building plants massively here means we’re taking the brunt of the production of energy that will actually supply Madrid and Barcelona,” says Nestares, a lawyer who owns the namesake winery alongside her sister. “That’s unfair.”
Nestares’ argument embodies a tension between Spain’s rural and urban communities that has been growing over the years. The vast majority of Spain’s land mass – around 70 per cent – is sparsely populated and residents of those regions have felt for decades they have been overlooked by the national government.
