Urduña/Orduña
Bizkaia · Basque Country
DO Bizkaiko Txakolina4.247inhabitants
880first mention
1518wine documented
The only city in the Lordship of Bizkaia, located in an enclave between Álava and Burgos. Lope Díaz II de Haro, lord of Biscay, granted it a settlement charter as a town in 1229, and Henry IV gave it the title of city in 1467.
First mention: The Chronicle of Alfonso III (Rotensis version, late 9th century) mentions “Urdunia” alongside Álava, Bizkaia and Alaone among the territories that remained in the hands of their inhabitants.
The legend
Bilbao ordinances 1399 (context); municipal ordinances of Orduña 1499-1518; DO 1994The wine ordinances of the city of Orduña
In medieval Bizkaia the local wine, the one we now call txakoli, was protected by law. Bilbao laid down its ordinances on the production and sale of wine in 1399, and the other towns followed its example. Among them was Orduña, the only city in the Lordship, at the foot of the rock face that separates Bizkaia from the Meseta. Its municipal ordinances, recorded in documents of 1499 and approved in 1518 by the licentiate Cristóbal Álvarez de Cueto, regulated, like those of Bilbao, both local wine and wine from outside: prices, weights and measures, and periods when sale was banned or free. At that time the documents still called this wine “vino de la cosecha”, wine of the harvest, and the word chacolí barely appears at the end of the 15th century. Five centuries later, Orduña once again has vineyards and bodegas within the designation of origin.
Alive today: Orduña has two bodegas registered with the DO Bizkaiko Txakolina, Gure Ahaleginak and Llarena. Gure Ahaleginak planted its first vineyard in 1987 and still makes wine and welcomes visitors.
Wineries and their wines
- Mirene
- Txakoli Gure Ahaleginak
- Txakoli Tinto Filoxera
- Vendimia tardía Ana
Wine towns nearby