Of all Spain’s red wine growing regions, La Rioja is the most celebrated. This legendary region produces some of the world’s best-loved red wine and has been a key player on Spain’s wine-making scene since Roman times.
The La Rioja wine region extends for some 120 kilometres along both sides of northern Spain’s Ebro River. The name of the region, in fact, from the words ‘Rio’ – meaning ‘river’ and ‘Oja’ – a tributary of the River Ebro.
Settled originally by the Phoenicians and consequently by the Carthaginians, Romans, Moors and Crusaders, wine production flourished under Roman rule (Roman wineries can still be seen in the area) but came to a virtual standstill with the arrival of the Moors. Under the rule of the Arab Moorish people La Rioja’s excellent wine-growing potential was little appreciated, but the liberation of Spain and the arrival of Christian Crusaders saw wine-making become popular again. Although Rioja is today principally associated with red wine, the Benedictine monks who planted vines in the area orginally cultivated white wine grapes. The 14th century saw locals develop a Rioja wine that blended red and white wines and over time lighter red wines came into being in Rioja.
But the early wines of today’s La Rioja wine region would have been nowhere near as sophisticated as red wine lovers appreciate today. Early wine-making techniques were primative and little was known about the best ways to nurture red wine grapes. Things began to change for the better in the late 1700s, when a demand to transport the wines for sale outside the area saw wine makers experiment with different types of wood and preservatives, taking the techniques of the celebrated French Bordeaux wine region as an example.
This French influence was magnified in the 1870s, when residents of Bordeaux came to Rioja seeking wines as their own vineyards had been wiped out by pestilence. The arrival of the French winemakers saw the scene set for what we now consider to be some of the finest wines to come out of Rioja.
La Rioja today is split into three distinct regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Baja and Rioja Alavesa. The names refer to the relative altititudes of the regions, with wines from the lower Rioja Baja region typically being, by contrast, higher in alcohol.
There are more than 1,000 wines that come out of Rioja today and many of them are considered to be some of the most versatile red wines for pairing with food. Rioja wines are often best drunk young and many offer an excellent drinking experience for a surprisingly reasonable price.
Wines from the La Rioja region are typically a blend of grape varities and, although celebrated for its red wine, Rioja also produces white and rose wines. The region is home to around 57,000 hectares of cultivated land and produces something like 250 million litres of wine each year. Of this staggering quantity, 85 per cent is red wine.
Possibly the most famous red wine grape to come out of La Rioja is Tempranillo. Other red wine grapes cultivated in the region include Graciano, Mazuelo and Garnacha Tinta. Whether they are red, white or rose, wines from the Rioja wine region are normally blended. A typical blended red wine from Rioja will contain around 60 per cent Tempranillo grapes, combined with up to 20 per cent Garnacha and smaller amounts of Mazuelo and Graciano.
Most vineyards in La Rioja will carry out their harvest in the autumn, typically in late September or early October. The Rioja Alta, at the northern end of the wine growing region, is the last to carry out the harvest, in late October.
Many Rioja wines are distinctive because of the oak aging process. A product of the Bordeaux influence on Rioja winemakers, the notable vanilla flavours that come with oak aging have become synonymous with Rioja wines.
Another interesting characteristic in the making of Rioja wine is that the bottles are very often aged for some years prior to being released for sale. An extreme example is the Marques de Murrieta bodega, which released its 1942 vintage 41 years later, in 1983. Although many Rioja wines were aged for 15 to 20 years in the past, today it is more common for the wines to be aged for anything between four and eight years before being released. The classifications ‘Rioja’, ‘Crianza’. ‘Rioja Reserva’ and ‘Rioja Gran Reserva’ are used to denote the relative pre-aging of the wines.
An interesting fact for fans of the Spanish punch Sangria – the first ever example of this popular drink was made using a Rioja wine.
