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- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Further south, in Baja, the sun-loving Garnacha stays
longer on the vine and produces rich, mature vintages.
It should be noted that the Rioja region also produces a
number of crisp whites, usually made with the Viura
grape. Next door, inNavarre, Rioja’s favourable climate
and terrain spill over, generating pleasing reds with
similar, if less reliable, qualities.The Garnacha vine makes
more of a contribution here, as do therosadosfor which
the region was once famous.
The first written use of the word Rioja (as far as we know) came in the late 11 thcentury.
It refers to the Río Oja, a small tributary of the Ebro, probably at the heart of an area
under vine.
By the 16thcentury Rioja was exporting its wine to France, Italy and Flanders.
But nearly all of it was white – the cheap red stuff stayed at home.
In 1926 Rioja became the first Spanish region to have something akin to the DO status,
with the creation of aconsejo regulador(control board); in 1991 it was elevated to DOCa.
Rioja’s biggest export market is the UK, which gets through 25 million litres of the stuff
in a year, a third of all Rioja exported.
A well-kept bottle ofgran reservaRioja should last longer than you.
Many 80-year-old vintages have proved excellent on opening.
InAragónthe northerly DO of Somontano, sheltered
by the Pyrenees, is enjoying new-found prestige for
both reds and whites. No one really acknowledged its
existence until the 1980s, but today the area makes
high quality wines born of experimentation with native
and foreign vines.To the south Aragón harbours three
further DO regions producing some great reds featuring
Garnacha and, in the DO of the same name, Cariñena
grapes.
Taken as red: five Rioja facts
Between 1891 and 1896
the phylloxera plague
wiped out 98 per cent of
Navarre’s vines.
