Editor’s Note: As we have been exploring Rioja throughout the month, we realized that this legendary region has not only infused itself throughout Spain, but throughout the world as a whole. From east to west, and north to south, people around the world have been boasting about the classic wines of Rioja…or have they? Our friend Dave Worthington has accepted our challenge to bring you his experience of Rioja from down under.

I had some friends out from the UK at Christmas and served them up a wine from Rioja one night with dinner. The look on their faces was like I’d just run over their cat. What they knew as Rioja was this cheap, daggy wine from the supermarket back home that costs 5 pounds. Here in Australia, we’ve been fairly lucky with Rioja, as we don’t have that history. In fact, only the more adventurous wine geek had ever heard of it ten years ago. You see, we’re a long, slow boat ride from Spain, imported wines are highly taxed and we have a booming local wine industry that serves up the local equivalent of the 5 quid (or US $10) bottle very nicely. So, the little Rioja wine we saw before about 2000 was not exactly inspiring and had more than likely been sitting in the corner of some hot bottleshop for 10 years, completely buggared by the heat by the time you bought it. The owner having a quiet chuckle when a punter buys a bottle. Of course, the Spanish immigrants always had some good stuff stashed away, but you had to know where to look and know the secret handshake to get in the door.

Thankfully, that’s changed for the better. Cool little bars have …