Spain’s Premier Red Wine Region

Rioja

"Quiero fer una prosa en román paladino,

en cual suele el pueblo fablar con su vezino,

ca no so tan letrado por fer otro latino:

bien valdrá, como creo, un vaso de bon vino". 

Gonzalo de Berceo

When I was on my way to Logro?o (Rioja’s principal city) I remembered Gonzalo de Berceo and I could not fail to mention him in this article. I heard his name for the first time, when a good friend in Argentina gave me a book of famous poets in the Spanish language, and Gonzalo de Berceo had written one of those poems. He was born in the Riojan village of Berceo and is considered to be the father of Spanish language. He was the first poet to write a verse in Spanish in which wine was the main topic! 

Being the country’s leading wine region, Rioja is also the most popular wine from Spain, and it’s very easy to find at many bottle shops or restaurants throughout the world. Who has never tried, at least once, a Rioja wine? I could not be in Spain and not visit this wine region. 

Rioja is a DOCa (Denominación de Origen Calificada) - which means qualified denomination of origin - and has been a wine-producing area for over 2000 years. The region was granted a DOCa in 1991 and holds the highest number of registered wineries in Spain, with the wines displaying diversity, reliability and value.Rioja lies in the north of Spain, named after the Rio (River) Oja, a tributary of the River Ebro.  Rioja is divided into the following 3 sub-regions:

Rioja Alta: Alta means “high” in Spanish – However this sub-region has only relatively high altitude, as it actual sits lower than Rioja Alavesa. It has an Atlantic climate and is slightly warmer than Rioja Alavesa, with predominantly iron-rich clay mixed with limestone soils. The wines produced in Rioja Alta are well structured and age worthy Tempranillo with high acidity.

Rioja Alavesa: The highest (400-1200m) and smallest of the sub-regions, Rioja Alavesa also has an Atlantic climate, but is the coolest and wettest sub-region in Rioja. The soils here are mainly chalky clay and limestone, which can produce some very fine wines that are fresher and lighter in body. 

Rioja Baja: Baja means “low” in Spanish - Unlike the neighbouring sub-regions it is very dry, with warm summers influenced by the Mediterranean and the lower altitude vineyards. Alluvial soils dominate here and mainly Garnacha vines are planted. With the heat, the region often produces wines with an excellent aromatic profile, high alcohol content and low acidity. The warmth from the Rioja Baja style wine is an ideal addition to the blends in Rioja, along with the freshness of Rioja Alavesa and the acidity from Rioja Alta styles.

Fantastic experience at Campo Viejo Winery

Campo Viejo was founded in 1959 by Jose Ortigüela, and after considerable worldwide recognition, in 2000 they decided to start construction of a new winery. They opened the doors again 2001, with an environmentally friendly and sustainable winery.

Alvaro Garcia, responsible for Public Relations for the winery, was hosting us [my husband and I] in the winery, and he took us on a tour of the vineyards. They are located close to Logro?o (the main city) in the Alta Rioja sub-region. He explained what matters to produce wines in this region such as soil, climate, varieties, etc.

We arrived in the production area in Campo Viejo, (a 30 million bottle per year winery), where we could see how immense their winemaking facilities are, and understood the reason why they are the leader, by volume, of wine production in this region. At the end of the tour we visited the barrel room where we could see at least seventy thousand oak barrels in one huge room.

Campo Viejo is famous and is exported worldwide, to more than 70 countries, delivering relatively affordable, quality Rioja wines.

Let’s discover their wines…    

Here we not only tried Campo Viejo wines, we also tried wines from the Félix Azpilicueta winery.

Félix Azpilicueta Martínez is one of the most important figures in the history of Rioja wine, he opened his winery in a small vineyard in 1881. The company belongs to the Pernod Ricard Group as well and both wineries have the same chief winemaker, Elena Adell. Unfortunately the Félix Azpilicueta wines are only available in the local Spanish market.

By Priscilla Hennekam