The Ebro River carved a valley so hospitable to Tempranillo that by 1102 Navarrese monks were pressing wine under royal charter in what is now the Rioja Alta subzone. Today La Rioja produces 280 million litres annually across 64,000 hectares, anchored by the DOCa Rioja designation—Spain's first Denominación de Origen Calificada, awarded in 1991. The region's reputation rests on Tempranillo's ability to express terroir: the clay-limestone soils of Rioja Alta yield structured reds that age for decades in American oak, while the warmer Rioja Baja produces riper, fruit-forward wines. Haro, the capital of Rioja Alta, hosts over 30 bodegas within a ten-minute radius, many occupying 19th-century railway-warehouse buildings whose stone walls maintain cellaring temperatures without mechanical cooling. A Rioja wine tour from San Sebastian bridges two UNESCO-designated food cultures—Basque pintxo tradition and Riojan viticulture—in a single day. The 140-kilometre journey south crosses the Ebro at Logroño, where medieval pilgrimage routes converge and modern tasting rooms occupy Renaissance palaces. Visitors enter barrel halls stacked with 225-litre barricas, the American oak imparting vanilla and coconut notes that define Rioja's crianza and reserva styles. Tours typically include two to three bodegas: a family-run estate where the winemaker walks you through fermentation tanks, and a century-old house whose underground calados extend 200 metres beneath cobbled streets. Tastings follow the crianza-reserva-gran reserva progression, each tier representing additional years in oak and bottle before release. The landscape itself tells viticultural history. Drive past Laguardia, an 11th-century hilltop fortress whose ramparts overlook Rioja Alavesa's chalky slopes, and you see why this subzone specializes in lighter, more aromatic Tempranillo. Vineyards here sit at 450 to 650 metres elevation, high enough that Atlantic weather systems moderate summer heat. Many tours pause in Elciego, where the titanium curves of Marqués de Riscal's Frank Gehry-designed hotel rise above traditional stone bodega buildings—a visual collision of 1858 winemaking heritage and 21st-century wine tourism. Lunch typically pairs regional dishes—pochas con codorniz, chuletillas al sarmiento—with estate wines, each course demonstrating how Rioja's cuisine evolved alongside its viticulture. The route back to San Sebastian follows the N-1, the same road that carried Rioja's first exports north to Bordeaux when phylloxera devastated French vineyards in the 1870s.