Spain’s Most Prominent Wine Region

With the Cantabrian Mountains looming to the north, Spain’s La Rioja region sits on the eastern side of north central Spain. It gives its name to the Rioja wine region, arguably Spain’s most famous.

Rioja’s vineyards follow the Erbo River, which enters La Rioja from the northeast and hugs its northern borders with Navarre and El País Vasco (Basque Country). In Rioja, winemaking goes back in an almost unbroken line to its Roman occupation. In the 19th Century, French wine merchants from a Bordeaux devastated by mildew and phylloxera introduced Rioja winemakers to the concept of oak barrel aging, which remains a practice in Rioja winemaking to this day.

Rioja was the first Spanish wine region to get DO status (1933) and the first region to get top level DOCa status (1991). Today, Rioja’s three sub-regions, Rioja Alavesa, Rioja Alta, and Rioja Oriental (formerly Rioja Baja) are known for Tempranillo and Garnacha for their reds and Malvasia and Viura for their whites.

This Friday, Mike Segal from Elite Wine distributors will be here pouring a selection of Riojas. Please join us any time in the hour and half.