Page 30 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Northern Spain

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Wines of Northern Spain

Spain’s most prestigious wine region, Rioja, is best known for
its red wines, matured to a distinctive vanilla mellowness.
Some of the most prestigious bodegas were founded by
émigrés from Bordeaux, and Rioja reds are similar to claret.
Rioja also produces good white and rosé wines. Navarra reds,
whites and especially rosés have improved dramatically,
helped by a government research programme. The Basque
region produces a tiny amount of the prickly, tart txacoli Repairing barrels in Haro, Rioja
(chacolí). Larger quantities of a similar wine
are made further west in Galicia, whose
best wines are full-bodied whites. Ribeiro, the popular everyday wine of
Galicia, is usually fizzy. It is often served
in white porcelain cups (tazas).
Ferrol Avilés
A8 Gijón
A Coruña A8
N640 Navia Oviedo A8 Llanes Santander A8 San
A6 Mieres Laredo Sebastián
C525 Bilbao
AP9 ASTURIAS Nalón CANTABRIA AP8
Santiago de Lugo Narcea A66 N621 AP68 PAÍS
Compostela N547 A67 VASCO N1
A6 A15 N121A
GALICIA A10 NAVARRA
Mino A1 Vitoria
AP9 AP53 0 kilometres 50 Miranda Pamplona
Cambados de Ebro Estella
Barrantes N540 N120 0 miles 25 A12
Pontevedra A Rúa O Barco Key Haro
Ribadavia Ourense N120 Logroño AP15
Vigo Larouco Rías Baixas AP68
A52 Ribeiro Nájera Ebro
Mino Calahorra
Fornelos A52 Valdeorras LA RIOJA
A52 Txacoli de Guetaria Tudela
Rioja
Navarra
Lagar de Cervera
is from Rías Baixas,
where Spain’s most
fashionable whites
are made from the
Albariño grape.

Wine Regions
The wine regions of Northern Spain are widely
dispersed. Cradled between the Pyrenees and the
Atlantic are the important regions of Rioja and
Navarra. Rioja is divided into the sub-regions
of Rioja Alavesa, Rioja Alta and Rioja Baja,
separated by the Río Ebro. The river also cuts
through the wine region of Navarra. To the north
are some of the vineyards of the Basque Country:
the minuscule Txacoli de Guetaria region. In the
far west lie the four wine regions of wet, rugged
Galicia: Rías Baixas, Ribeiro, Valdeorras, and
Ribeira Sacra. Wine village of El Villar de Álava in Rioja Alta

nsp_028-029_spain_wines.indd 28 19/01/2015 17:34