Basque: Spain

The Basque country (País Vasco in Castilian, Euskadi in Basque) is the most ferociously independent of all Spain’s 17 autonomous regions. This densely populated, heavily industrialized strip of country facing the Bay of Biscay is not normally associated with wine, even though the important rioja region stretches north of the River Ebro into the Basque province of Alava where the Rioja Alavesa subregion is located—home to such important estates as Marqués de Riscal, Contino, Artadi, Martínez Bujanda, Remelluri, and Remírez de Ganuza. The three wholly Basque dos are the tiny region of Getariako txakolina on the coast 25 km/15 miles west of San Sebastián, the smaller Bizkaiko Txakolina around Bilbao, and the newest one, Arabako Txakolina.