Burgos
Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populous municipality of the province of Burgos.
Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of th ...
and
Palencia
Palencia () is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Palencia.
Located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the northern half of ...
,
Castile and León
Castile and León is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwestern Spain. Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, covering 94,222 km2. It is, however, sparsely populated, with a pop ...
,
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
. It was officially upgraded from the lower status of QWPSR (''VCPRD'' in Spanish) in 2007. The DOP covers 67 municipalities (54 in the province of Burgos and 13 in the province of Palencia). There are 23 wineries (''bodegas'') from Burgos registered and 2 from Palencia. The DOP takes its name from the river Arlanza which flows through it.
History
The first written evidence of wine production in this area comes from the 12th century, when the
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...
Duero
The Douro (, , , ; ; ) is the largest river of the Iberian Peninsula by discharge. It rises near Duruelo de la Sierra in the Spanish province of Soria, meanders briefly south, then flows generally west through the northern part of the Meseta ...
.
When the
phylloxera
Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belongs to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs); orig ...
virus devastated the vineyards of Europe at the end of the 19th century, almost all the vineyards in this area were uprooted and replanted by grafting onto American
rootstock
A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to ...
. By the 1920s the replanting had been completed.
Climate
The climate is Continental, with long hot, dry summers and cold winters. In addition there is a sharp contrast between the daytime and night-time temperatures.
Grapes
The authorized white varieties are
Albillo
Albillo or Albillo Real is a white Spanish wine grape varietyAlbillo Real ,
Viura
Macabeo, also called Viura or Macabeu (, ), is a white variety of wine grape.
It is widely grown in the Rioja region of northeastern Spain, the Cava producing areas south of Barcelona, and the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. Spanis ...
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebano ...
,
Merlot
Merlot ( ) is a dark-blue-colored wine grape variety that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name ''Merlot'' is thought to be a diminutive of , the French name for the blackbird, probably a reference to the color ...
and
Petit Verdot
Petit Verdot is a variety of red wine grape, principally used in classic Bordeaux blends. It ripens much later than the other varieties in Bordeaux, often too late, so it fell out of favour in its home region. When it does ripen it adds tannin, ...
.
The minimum planting density is 2,000 vines/ha, whether planted as low individual vines (''en vaso'') or on trellises (''en espaldera'').
The maximum permitted yields are 10,000 kg/ha for white varieties, and 7,000 kg/ha for red varieties.