Rioja and Old Castile

Take a wrong turning in Old Castile and you might find yourself twisting endlessly through the sierra, leaving wheatfields behind to be replaced by rolling hills studded with flocks of sheep, then by stark outcrops overlooking an apparently bleak wasteland. In a swathe of high plateau (the ubiquitous meseta), this vast region of Spain extends northwards from Madrid before hitting the natural mountain barrier of the Sierra Cantábrica. The name ‘castillo’ itself, meaning ‘castle’, harks back to the 9th century, when the region - or more precisely the Ebro and Duero rivers that slice through it - was the frontline in the long conflict between Moors and Christians. Crenellated castles proliferated on every hilltop, and were often built over Celtiberian and/or Roman predecessors.