Rioja History

If there was one single circumstance that defined the history of La Rioja through the Middle Ages, it was its location at the crossroads of two routes of fundamental importance: the pilgrimage Route of St. James, which brought Celts, Goths, Franks, Saxons over the Pyrenees from France; and the Ebro River which served as conduit for Iberians, Romans and Arabs arriving from the Mediterranean.

When the Roman troops arrived approximately in the second century B.C., La Rioja was mostly occupied by two tribes of Celtic origin.  The Romans brought their civilization with them, making the region part of their larger province of Hispania Tarraconensis.  Spain flourished under Roman rule, growing rich during the centuries of relative peace and gradually adopting Christianity during the 3rd and 4th centuries.  The arrival of the Visigoths in 409 ended Roman rule, setting off a 1000 year struggle for control of the peninsula.  The region was subsequently invaded by the Arabs at the beginning of the 8th century, thus beginning a period of warring incursions with the incipient Christian kingdoms. Paradoxically, it was the very different influences of Arab culture and subsequent Christian repopulation that established the identity of the districts of La Rioja.

In the course of the 12th century, border disputes continued between Castile and Navarre to gain control of La Rioja until arbitration sought from Henry I of England and given in 1177 decided in favor of the Kingdom of Castile. Meanwhile the name of La Rioja appeared in a document for the first time in the Charter of 1099.

In 1369 Aragon and Navarre signed a pact whereby La Rioja was transferred to the former, although it soon returned to Castile. This kind of shift happened several times, until Henry IV finally recovered it for Castile. The merger on Aragon and Castile under Ferdinand and Isabella in the 15th century ended these disputes as all these territories were united to form the new Spanish state.

During the War of Independence (Peninsular War) Rioja was taken by the French under Napoleon and not recovered until 1813 after years of bloody guerilla fighting.

The decision of the Constitutional Cortes declaring La Rioja to be an independent province came in October 1812, and in January 1822 the province of Logrono was created by decree, taking in the whole of the geographical and historical area of La Rioja. However, Ferdinand VII annulled these decisions and the villages of La Rioja were once again split up amongst the provinces of Burgos, Soria, Alava, Navarre and Aragon.

Finally, in November 1833, a Royal Decree outlined a smaller version of la Rioja which, in the shape of the province of Logrono, has remained until the present time.

Winemaking had been introduced to the region by the Phoenicians and due to its prominent position on the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route, Rioja’s wines gained fame through word of mouth during the middle ages.  Due to food shortages during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930’s, the government ordered many of these ancient vineyards to be torn up and replaced with wheat.  Replanting of the vineyards only began in the 60’s, but the spectacular 1970 vintage put the region back on the map, sparking the viticultural investment that has made Rioja what it is today.