Initially wine in Spain was regarded simply as an agricultural product, made with an eye toward quantity over quality, and produced by local cooperatives that sold in bulk in neighborhood markets. And
   But when phylloxera devastated French vineyards in the mid to late 1800s, France's demand for imported wine skyrocketed, and Rioja wines - aged as they were in the "French style" - quickly became the forerunner of Spanish wines, a position which they have held ever since.
   In Germany during the early 1900s an attempt was made to ensure the quality of all wine produced in the country and a number of small legislative decrees were handed down that controlled such items as the addition of sugar, grape juice, and foreign wines. By the end of the 19th century Riesling was the dominant grape variety in the Rheingau region of Germany. But the early 20th century saw a sharp decline in this trend which prompted Germany to reserve land especially for growing Riesling Grapes. Nowadays, the Riesling grape is treated as a national treasure in Germany.
   Meanwhile in the early 20th century in France a big leap was made in the storage of wine. Back in the 19th century, wood was pretty much the only thing available to age wine in. Aside from the rare use of stone vats as at La Nerthe, wine was vinified in small oak barrels, in very large oak barrels called "foudres", or in the large oak vats found in Bordeaux and Burgundy.
   But in the early 20th century, poured concrete made its appearance, and wine makers started using it to build their vats. Concrete had several advantages over oak. First, it could be fashioned into convenient shapes, and so most winemakers made them square so that a row of vats could be created, sharing common walls and taking up less space than round oak vats.
   Concrete was much less expensive than oak and easy to work with, as opposed to oak barrels which required many hours of highly specialized labor to build. Concrete was a neutral substance, and didn't impart any particular taste to the wine. Finally, it was much easier to clean and maintain than oak, which required sterilization with sulphur and special treatments before use each year.
   Concrete therefore became the material of choice, particularly in less prestigious wine-producing areas where winemakers needed to minimize expenses, like the Rhône Valley, Beaujolais and some parts of Bordeaux like Saint Emilion and Pomerol.