200 BC – A Historical Region
Long ago, in what is now the Rioja DOCa region, ancient Romans left the first known traces of winemaking in Rioja.
The remnants they left behind would eventually be discovered, inspiring those who came after them to grow vines and produce what would become Rioja’s key commodity: unparalleled wines.
Historians often attribute the planting of the first grapevines on the Iberian Peninsula to the Phoenicians, many centuries after wine had already been discovered by Mesopotamian civilizations who recognized the alcoholic fermentation of grape juice.
This likely means that the first sedentary peoples who settled in the Ebro valley of Spain, a well-suited habitat for the development of the Vitis vinifera grapevine, produced wine for their own consumption long before the arrival of the Romans, who founded Alfaro, Spain, in 179 BC.
The oldest document that mentions the existence of grapevines in Rioja hails all the way back from the year 873. It comes from the Cartulary of San Millán, detailing a donation involving the Monastery of San Andrés de Trepeana, where vineyards were present.
Viticulture in Rioja, however, wasn’t explicitly mentioned until two centuries later. The first known documentation of viticulture came in July of 1063, when the Carta de Población de Longares imposed a labor obligation on civilians living in Longares, requiring them to dedicate two days each to plowing, digging, planting, and also one day to pick grapes—all for the benefit of the San Martín de Albelda monastery.
Beyond these early testimonies, Rioja’s true turning point in winemaking didn’t come until the end of the 1700s.
