Its story-
Before talking about history, It is worth naming some of the most distinguished wines of La Rioja:
Artadi Grandes Añadas
Artadi Viña El Pisón
Aurus
Cirsión
Contador
Contino Viña del Olivo
Culmen
Dalmau
Amarén
Hiru 3 Racimos
Reserva 890 y Reserva 904
Castillo de Ygay
Macan
Torremuga
“The name of Rioja (Rioxa) was first written in 1092 and was referring only to the lands of the basin of the river Oja…”
Any person fond of wine knows that la Rioja is one of the most famous regions of Spain, where very good wines are produced.
But the history of la Rioja is interesting not only for the quality of their wines, but for something even more important: it is the birthplace of the Spanish language. The history of la Rioja is a fascinating tapestry where there meet the various cultural influences. Prehistoric tribes, the Phoenicians, Basques, Celts, Romans, Visigoths, moors, Navarre, Castilians and Aragonese, have enriched the wine culture in this region, where there is also a very important French influence. Although the archaeologists have discovered dolmens near Laguardia, in Rioja Alavesa, which prove the existence of tribes in the bronze age, apparently the ancient Basque are the first ethnic strength in the region. The Phoenicians built a lighthouse on the River in what is now the town of Alfaro. A Celtic tribe, the Berones, inhabited the area in the 4th century BC and one important part of the region of la Rioja was known with the name of Beronia (now there are bodegas Beronia S.A).
The Romans caused a great impact on the region. It is not known if they taught the cultivation of the grape or if it already existed when they came to the Peninsula, the truth is that they were big drinkers of wine and developed viniculture in the region. Quintilian was born in Calahorra, in the Rioja Baja, the 35th year of our era and this great educator of his time and the first man in Europe who received a salary of the State as a Professor, is currently honored in his hometown, where his statue adorns the main square.
The Moors occupied the area for a short season of about a century, and therefore its influence in the region is minimal, except for some villages in the Rioja Baja; they were rejected from the area by Christian warriors involved in the recapture. In the year 834 in the battle of Clavijo (near Logroño), James appeared on a white horse, and changed the course of the battle in favor of Christians; 70,000 Moors perished whose demand for an annual tribute of a hundred virgins, had caused a rebellion among Christians. After the battle of Clavijo, the Saint was known in Spain as Santiago Matamoros, and over the next 1000 years the religious of Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia, tried to impose a tribute of wine to residents of Castilla as a thank you for the divine intervention of the Holy.
The popularity of this event had great impact in Medieval Europe and one of the three pilgrimages in the middle ages, together with Rome and Jerusalem, was the Paris trip to Compostela to visit the tomb of the Saint and receive his blessings. This pilgrimage was conceived by the monks of the powerful Abbey of Cluny in Burgundy, as an advanced Christian army who sooner or later would kick out the Moors from the Iberian peninsula and Western Europe. The Cluniac monks arrived in la Rioja and founded monasteries and hospices for the spiritual and physical needs of the pilgrims who were along the “French way”. The famous monasteries of Nájera and San Millán de la Cogolla were founded for this purpose and for the 12th century around half a million pilgrims, most French, made the annual trip to Compostela from Somport or Roncesvalles.
The wine production is intimately connected with the Church, since the monks of the monasteries were the men who had the knowledge necessary to make wine. One of the Saints most revered in the region is San Millán, who lived in the sixth century of our era and it is said that he doubled the miracle of Christ, in the sense that he gave a drink to a crowd with only a small measure of wine.
To better illustrate the pilgrims about the attractions and the facilities that you could find along the way, was the first travel guide produced by the middle ages, written by a Frenchman
-Aymeric Picaud – that reported on the itineraries, meals, good and bad water, famous churches, the customs of the people… ending with a wide description of Compostela and its famous Basilica. Via Jacobea remained open to Europe as the most precocious tourist experience of time.
It is accepted that the earliest writings in the language of Castile took form in the hills of la Rioja, in the Romanesque monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, where at the beginning of the 11th century a monk named Gonzalo de Berceo decided to write his poems in the vernacular language, because he did not know latin. He said he hoped that his poems were worth at least “a glass of bon vino”, obviously Rioja.
The name of Rioja (Rioxa) was first written in 1092 and was referring only to the lands of the basin of the river Oja; It later applied to the region as we know it today. By the way that in the region it was mainly white wine. The Red wine began to dominate until the end of the 17TH century. The Rioja wine was not known past of the region until 1830 when new roads were built and opened the Tudela-Bilbao railway line that was able to send the wine to the Basque country. The single province of Viscaya used 113, 550 hl. of wine a year and the Hotel Bilbao regulation pointed out that guests had to be served in its two main meals with wines of la Rioja.
I think that today few people remember the origins of the Spanish languaje, but
many know and remember the names of the wines from la Rioja, of the ancient and modern, wineries that satisfy us with their products.
La Rioja