Rioja is probably Spain’s best known wine but historically it's intertwined with the French wine makers and wine-making methods, since the 18th century when the Iberian trade routes were improving and the French were looking for new growing areas.
Today some of the new blends of Rioja may be drunk young, but traditionally Rioja wine is aged in oak casks. Around 1780, Manuel Quintano adopted the method of aging wines in oak casks, as they did in the area of Bordelais, although he adapted their method slightly by using a larger cask.
By 1850 a commercial vineyard was established by Marquis de Murrieta in the Duca de Vitoria, these wines were exported to the Spanish colonies. When, in the 1850s, a blight destroyed many of the French vineyards many Bordelais producers left for Spain and the region of Rioja, searching for new and suitable land for their vineyards.
In 1925, Rioja was the first production area to be granted the Denominación de Origen status and later in 1991, this quality control marking was promoted to a Denominación de Origen Calificada, because of its better and consistant quality.
What sets the Rioja production apart from other producers is the long aging of the wine, which the Spanish wine-makers took further than the French with a Rioja wine being aged in a cask for four to ten years and for some of their wines, even longer.
There is evidence that wine has been made in area north of the River Ebro in the Rioja region since Roman times. It began to flourish again, after the expulsion of the Moors when the monasteries in Rioja starting making wine for the pilgrims walking the Camino Frances to Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia.
This was a young wine that was more “traditional” to the region of Rioja, a fresh fruity drink, that was not aged in barrels and didn't keep well, a drink for the field workers rather than fine diners.
It wasn't until the popularity of French Beaujolais that renewed an interest in the "rough" wines of Rioja, along with an growing awareness that these “young Spanish reds” could compete with their French counterparts and by the 1980s they were doing just that.
The young Spanish reds gave us a choice of Rioja, an oak-aged distinctive gentleman and young and fresh lighter style wine. Both of which have their place on anyones wine list.
See here for more on Spanish wines.
Rachel L. Webb - Rachel L Webb lives in and writes mainly about Andalucia. She enjoys exploring the region and shares her explorations through her website ...
