Rioja
The beautiful vineyards of Rioja (pronounced Ri-ok-ka) lie on the River Ebro valley, with mountains to the north, this is where be visiting on our Wine Tour to Rioja. There are three sub regions, with the distinctive orangey-red soils of the Rioja Alta accounting for at least half the production. The highest quality grapes come from Rioja Alavesa a wide slope on the north of the Ebro. The Rioja Baja is a warmer climate and lies significantly lower down the slope on a flat area, with soils of alluvial deposits.
In the 19th century Rioja was a region famed for white wines, not reds, and its evolution has been influenced by Bordeaux and in particular by two Marquises. The Marques de Murrieta, a student of Bordeaux, created wines known as ‘Ebro claret’. The other Marques was Riscal, a Spanish exile in Bordeaux, who put vast sums into the development of Bordeaux style wines within Rioja. The wines achieved acclaim, but what put Rioja on the map was not so much their efforts, as the disasters that struck France between 1850 and 1870. Firstly a string of vintages were decimated by mildew and then phylloxera arrived, devastating the vineyards. This brought Bordeaux wine merchants, thirsty for supplies, to Rioja. Coupled with the coming of the railways, which made the area accessible to the rest of Europe the scale of production exploded almost over night. This success built on another’s misfortune could not last though. In 1899 Phylloxera struck Rioja and the export markets disappeared with the resurgence of French wines and Spain’s loss of empire. A brief respite was afforded by World War One and the opening of the American markets, but with prohibition and the Spanish Civil War, things went from bad to dire. The post war years saw a steady rise in the fortunes of Rioja. There was an expansion in quantity and quality of the cooperatives under the watchful eye of General Franco. By the 1970’s the ripple effect of rising wine prices boosted the trade further and a new generation of dynamic Bodegas were founded, such as Marqués de Cáceres and some ‘châteaux’, Remelluri and Contino. Through all this the consumer has been fairly constant in their love of Rioja and recent years have seen a wave of new Bodegas determined to carve out niches by high quality, and the established greats are firing on all cylinders. To add to all these wonderful bodegas to visit, for the wine traveller there are other things to see and do. Bilbao, the gateway to La Rioja has the Guggenheim museum with its controversial modern exhibits and the old town centres in the wine regions of Haro, Laguardia and Logrono are all well worth seeking out.
We recommend that you pack your binoculars for these fantastic wine tours to Rioja, as the bird-life in this unspoilt area is also prolific. The gastronomy of this region is hearty country cooking, with milk fed lamb being the most famous dish along with roast suckling pig and whole varieties of tapas.
Great Wines of Northern Spain
22 - 29 October 2007, 13 - 20 October 2008
Rioja Vineyard Walk
7 - 13 September 2008
The Sunday Times Wine Club tour to Rioja
18 - 21 October 2007, 23 - 27 September 2009
