BIZKAIKO TXAKOLINA

The presence of the vine in Bizkaia goes back thousands of years. From the 12th and 13th centuries, self-sufficient viticulture and local consumption began.

One of the versions of the etymological origin of the word txakoli says that it comes from “etxeko ain”, which means ‘just enough for home’, a common response from producers when asking how the harvest had gone.

During the 14th and 15th centuries, local wines began to be regulated and protected. The first documentary evidence appears in a text from 1520 in which a reference to ‘chacolin wine’ is read to refer to the local wine. But at the beginning of the 20th century, competition from foreign wines and industrialization, together with the phylloxera plague or pathogens such as powdery mildew or mildew, destroyed a good part of the 2,874 hectares that were registered in 1891.

The D.O. Bizkaiko Txakolina brings together txakoli producers from the province of Bizkaia who make their txakolis under the parameters established by the managing body of the designation of origin.

Vineyards are present throughout the entire geography of Bizkaia. Plantations can be found both in areas very close to the coastline, as well as in inland valleys, or on the slopes of medium-altitude mountains, below 400m.

Within Bizkaia there are regions where the vineyard area and the number of wineries is significantly higher than average. We are talking mainly about the regions of Uribe and Urdaibai.

Thus, within the first, the Txori-Herri Valley (Zamudio, Derio, Lezama, Larrabetzu, etc.) or the municipality of Bakio stand out. In the second region we can mean Gernika, Busturia, Muxika or Kortezubi, among others.

But we would be missing the truth if we did not remember here other traditional producing areas such as Encartaciones, with its Zalla, Balmaseda or Gordexola vineyards, or Duranguesado with its vineyards dominated by the ridges of the Anboto and Oiz mountains, in the municipalities of Elorrio, Amorebieta, Euba, Durango or Abadiño.

The Txakoli vineyard is also present in areas as diverse as the municipality of Orduña, an enclave located in the Ayala valley, or both in the valleys (Markina) and at the mouth (Lekeitio and Mendexa) of Lea Artibai.

In short, a rich variety of areas and locations that provide peculiar characteristics to the txakolis made, although within the same common line established by the Designation of Origin.