Regional information for La Rioja

La Rioja is a province and the second-smallest autonomous community of northern Spain with a capital city of Logroño. It was made into an autonomous community during the reorganization following the death of Francisco Franco.

Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada and Nájera. The region also has the smallest population; half of its 174 municipalities have populations under 200 with nearly half of its citizens living in the capital.

It is bordered by the Basque Country, Navarre, Aragón and Castile & León. The Río Ebro flows through this region, as does the Río Oja, for which it is known.

The first thing that comes to mind when you hear ‘La Rioja’ is probably the wine bearing the same name and the town of Haro is the centre of the regions wine production, with its well-known folkloristic event, the annual "battle of the wine".

Of major touristic interest is the Camino de Santiago (Way of Saint James), a part of which leads through La Rioja, and the monasteries along the route are of great cultural importance, as it is here that the first text in Castilian Spanish was ever written.

Along Camino de Santiago there are many towns of great beauty. Among them are, Calahorra, Arnedo, San Millan de la Cogolla, Santo Domingo de la Calzada and Logroño (originally founded by the Romans and today the region's capital).

Along Camino de Santiago there are many towns of great beauty. Among them are, Calahorra, Arnedo, San Millan de la Cogolla, Santo Domingo de la Calzada and Logroño (originally founded by the Romans and today the region's capital).

Also worth a visit is the area Tierra de Cameros, with its outstanding landscapes, grottos and caves.

La Rioja offers great possibilities for rural tourism, and if you like hunting, fishing, climbing or hiking it is certainly a place you should take into consideration.

There are seven varieties of wine produced in this region, four of them red and three white. Another speciality is Pimientos del Piquillo, a delicious and sweet kind of red pepper. Highlights of the regions traditional cooking include lamb and the marzipan of Sierra de Cameros, which is held in high regard all over Spain.

A History of La Rioja Wines

The region extends for approximately 120 kilometres along both sides of the Ebro River and is bounded by mountains on either side. In fact, the word "Rioja" is a derivation of the two words "Rio" (River) and "Oja" (name of a tributary of the Ebro, located near the region's south-western boundary).

Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Moors and finally, medieval Crusaders, have all played their part in Spains’ history making.

The Romans, however, made wine a part of their culture wherever they travelled and Rioja was no exception. Ancient sites of Roman wineries still exist in and around the area today.

After the Romans came the Moors and wine making all but ceased. It wasn't until after the famous "El Cid" liberated Spain and medieval Christianity brought trade via the Crusaders through the region, that it flourished again.

The Benedictine monks of Cluny in Burgundy, who were known for their viticulture, established monasteries in the area planting vines with mostly white grapes.

In the fourteenth century, English traders acquired a taste for lighter wines, which was a blending of white and red wines called blancos pardillos. As the English and French courts preferred the lighter wines, development of lighter reds continued thereby satisfying their needs.

The real improvements occurred when the need to prolong wine during transportation called for different types of wood and preservatives to be used and studies were made of the techniques used in Bordeaux.

Progress was halted during the Peninsular War until 1852, when the Bordelais came south to Rioja seeking vines because their vineyards had been blighted with "oidium". When phylloxera devastated Bordeaux in the 1870s and the "French" influence really took hold in the Rioja, many of the region's finest bodegas (winery) started production on what we now consider as the great wines of Rioja.

Today, Rioja is divided into three regions:

• Rioja Alta is, as the name suggests, in higher altitudes and covers approximately 45,000 acres.

• The Rioja Alavesa terrain covering approximately 25,000 acres is "terraced".

• The Rioja Baja covers approximately 37,000 acres. Generally wines from this area have higher alcohol content.

• The unusual rock formation on the beach at Buelna village which are best viewed at low tide.