Vizcaya, deep wines, unforgettable wines.
- In Vizcaya we can find 2 wineries to visit.
- 2 towns here have wineries.
In this province, a very typical wine of this geography called txacolí is elaborated, which in its origin, was a farmhouse wine, elaborated in an artisan way, for family consumption. Little by little, the production of this wine has been standardized in order to open it to the general public, but even so, there is no fixed production system.
Biscay has always been a land of vineyards, but at the beginning of the 19th century, cereals began to replace vines. In fact, with the phylloxera there were serious fears of the disappearance of the Biscayan txacolí, a vineyard that was replanted in the 1980s thanks to institutional support.
The characteristic grapes are Hondarribi zuri, which is white, and Hondabirri Beltza, which is red, and are grown in vineyards with vines and trellises. Harvesting is usually completely manual. Some wineries practice barrel aging.
Commonly, the white wines of this area are straw yellow with greenish tones, and have intense aromas of ripe fruit.
We cannot fail to mention the famous Txacolí festivals. The first samples of the wine are released the day before Christmas and coincide with the marking of San Antón. But the total production is released in Bilbao on the day of the Chacolí (txkolinaren Egura), which is celebrated the first week of May. The most important show is the last Monday of October in Guernika.
