Wines of Jaen — Torreperogil, Bailen and Lopera

Wine here is old — Roman ground, then a working crop beside grain and olives. In the nineteenth century the three sat on similar acres. Phylloxera hit at the end of that century, as it did across Europe. The olive took the land back. Today you drive through Jaen and see silver trees, not rows of vine. The IGPs mark the places that kept a cellar going.

Reds from Tempranillo, Syrah, Garnacha and, around Bailen, a local grape called Molinera de Bailen. Whites from Jaen blanca (also called Baladi Verdejo), Pedro Ximenez, Torrontes and some Chardonnay. Rosé exists. Sweet and raisin wines from very ripe Pedro Ximenez appear where the summer is hot enough; they are not usually fortified the way a Jerez cream is, because the grape dries on the vine.

Lopera still makes a pale, dry, fino-like wine from Pedro Ximenez brought in from nearby Arjona. People used to call the town “little Jerez”. That is a nickname, not a legal name.

This is the largest of the three maps: Torreperogil itself plus towns on the Loma such as Ubeda, Baeza, Canena, Sabiote, Ibros and Lupion. The IGP also reaches toward Cazorla and Villacarrillo. Reds and whites here can remind you of La Mancha more than of Jerez — table wine, not a solera bar. The cooperative in Torreperogil still presses both oil and wine. Come if you are already walking Renaissance squares in Ubeda or Baeza. The architecture is the morning. The glass is lunch.

North of the capital, on the old road through Despeñaperros: Bailen, Baños de la Encina, Guarroman, Santa Elena and a few neighbours. The IGP also lists Mengibar, Torredelcampo and Villanueva de la Reina. Reds lead. Molinera de Bailen has to make up a large share of a labelled bottle. The climate is hot; the wines are sturdy. Commercial cellars in the town itself have thinned out. Treat this as a glass with the castle at Baños de la Encina or a stop on the Madrid–Andalusia road, not as a tasting street.

West of Jaen, toward Andujar, Arjona, Arjonilla and Porcuna. This is the smallest pocket and the one that tastes closest to Montilla: Pedro Ximenez, a pale dry wine, old American oak that once sat in Jerez houses. Bodegas Herruzo is the cellar that remains open in Lopera. The vines in the township itself are few; much of the grape now comes from Arjona. You are not in the Montilla-Moriles denomination. You are on the Jaen side of the same campiña.

The original list skipped this third IGP. It covers Alcala la Real, Castillo de Locubin, Frailes, Los Villares, Valdepeñas de Jaen and the hills of Martos and Alcaudete. Whites and reds, some sparkling. Alcala la Real is the town people already visit for La Mota. If you are on that road from Granada, that is the logical cellar, not Lopera.