{"id":16302,"date":"2016-12-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-25T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bodegasmontecillo.com\/novedades\/the-history-of-wines-from-rioja-part-i\/"},"modified":"2024-04-25T22:54:16","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T20:54:16","slug":"the-history-of-wines-from-rioja-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bodegasmontecillo.com\/en\/news\/the-history-of-wines-from-rioja-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"The history of wines from Rioja Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

In previous publications we have talked about the grapes from the Rioja D.O.Ca<\/a>, of their ageing, and corresponding categories, as well as the best option<\/a>, always a priori, for each social occasion. <\/span>
\n\"La
\nWe haven’t missed a trick!<\/span>
\nHaving said that, we have still not explained how it all began<\/strong>.<\/span>
\nAs the D.O.Ca Rioja is considered to be one of the most sought-after and prestigious wine regions on the planet<\/strong>, we are going to comment on the origin of the liquid legend that is Rioja wine. <\/span>
\nThe history of Riojan wines covers the long and varied tradition of <\/span>winemaking <\/span><\/a>\u00a0in the <\/span>Spanish region <\/span><\/a>of the <\/span>\u00a0Ebro Valley, <\/span><\/a>\u00a0covering the area between the <\/span>Obarenes Mountains,<\/span><\/a> the <\/span>Sierra de Cantabria<\/span><\/a> to the north and the <\/span>\u00a0Sierra de la Demanda <\/span><\/a>\u00a0to the south. <\/span>
\nDuring the Middle Ages the growing of vines was very much linked to the Church and Monasteries<\/strong>, as occurred in many other European viticultural areas, without doubt due to the significance of wine in the Christian religion.<\/span>
\n\"Map
\nUntil the 15th Century the wine produced by Riojan vinegrowers was mainly for private consumption<\/strong>, as the majority came from tithes to churches and monasteries, as well as the their abundant vineyards. <\/span>
\nTrade grew considerably, as Rioja increased its production way beyond the needs of self-sufficiency.<\/span>
\nThe commerce in Riojan wines was limited by land transport<\/strong>, although there was proof of the sale of wine in Italy, France and Flanders via the Port at Bilbao, the export of wine was far exceeded by the trade in Riojan wool and did not reach the levels seen in other areas such as Port and Bordeaux that were advantaged by maritime and river transport. \u00a0\u00a0Rioja would have to wait until the arrival of the railway in the 19th Century. <\/span>
\nBut, really, Rioja did not surface until the <\/strong><\/span>phylloxera<\/a><\/strong> epidemic<\/strong> (an insect that attacks vine roots), which affected French vineyards at the end of the <\/span>19th century, <\/span><\/a>as it would take several more decades for Spanish region to be infested.<\/span>
\nAnd this was the turning point that marked a drive forward in terms of the expansion and modernisation of the wine industry<\/strong>, both through being open to the French market, as well as due to the popularisation of new winemaking techniques, some of which arrived with French winemakers who were looking for new lands that were unaffected by the epidemic. <\/span>
\nThis continued until 1925, a year in which the region was recognised as a Designation of Origin, the first to be constituted in Spain. <\/strong><\/span>
\n\"Denominaci\u00f3n
\nHaving said this we are going to stop to go back over a few key moments.<\/span>
\nFor example, the oldest remaining document that refers to the existence of vines in Rioja dates back to <\/strong><\/span>873<\/a><\/strong>. It comes from the <\/span>San Mill\u00e1n<\/span><\/a> Cartulary and refers to a donation that was made by the San Andr\u00e9s de Trepeana Monastery where there were some vines. <\/span>
\nViticulture was not referred to again for another two centuries, when we find the \u00ab<\/span>Longares population charter<\/span><\/a>,\u00bb granted by Don G\u00f3mez, Bishop of N\u00e1jera, in July <\/span>1063<\/span><\/a>. This levied a serfdom on the locals in favour of the <\/span>San Mart\u00edn de Albelda Monastery<\/span><\/a>, of \u00abtwo days of ploughing, two days of digging, two days of planting, two days of cutting and one of harvesting.\u00bb<\/span>
\nBut aside from these anecdotes you have to travel forward to the 18th Century, when <\/span>Manuel Quintano<\/a><\/strong>, canon of <\/span>Burgos Cathedral,<\/span><\/a> learnt the winemaking techniques used in the M\u00e9doc<\/a><\/strong> region in France<\/strong>, during a trip there in\u00a0<\/span>1787<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>
\n\"Manuel
\nTake note, we are talking of a time when Bordeaux was just about to achieve worldwide fame thanks to Thomas Jefferson who was US ambassador in France and was responsible for the bottling of the mythical sweet white wine, Ch\u00e2teau d\u00b4Yquem.<\/span>
\nIn fact, the Thomas Jefferson 1787 collection was one of the highest priced wine collections in history, with bottles at more than 200,000 euros. <\/span>
\nReturning to Don Manuel, once in Spain he put the new techniques<\/strong> described in his \u00abMethod for making wine in Bordeaux\u00bb – what he had learnt in that city – into practice in his viticultural operation in Labastida<\/strong>. It was a complicated year due to high rainfall during the vegetative period. But he cleaned the grapes before pressing, controlled the fermentation temperature, carried out rackings and clarified the wine with egg white. Crushing the bunches, he removed the stalks to give longer-lasting wines (wines with higher total acidity and lower pH than if whole bunches were barrelled.) Racking removed the dregs that gave wines a coarse character and the use of barrels to store and transport wine avoided the unpleasant flavour of wineskins. Recommendations were also included on growing vines, the need to use the most select grapes in the production and the formula for sugar enrichment<\/strong>, by adding a part of previously boiled must to the fermenting grapes.<\/span><\/p>\n