Spritzer In some places it is said that wine spritzers make poets sing and nations come together. The word comes from the German "spritzen" "spatter, squirt, spray, sprinkle", i.e. adding water and thus diluting the wine so that it can be consumed in larger, thirst-quenching amounts. Alcoholic spritzers are increasingly available ready-mixed in cans; their relatively low alcohol and calorific content means they are often marketed at women. In Hesse, "gespritzt" usually refers to a mixture of soda water or lemonade and "Apfelwein" (in Central Hessian dialect, "Ebblwoi"), an alcoholic drink from fermented apple juice somewhat similar to dry hard cider.
Rioja (wine) Rioja (wine) Rioja [] is a wine region in Spain, with "Denominación de Origen Calificada" (D.O.Ca., "Qualified Designation of Origin"). Rioja wine is made from grapes grown in the autonomous communities of La Rioja and Navarre, and the Basque province of Álava. Rioja is further subdivided into three zones: Rioja Alta, Rioja Baja and Rioja Alavesa. Many wines have traditionally blended fruit from all three regions, though there is a slow growth in single-zone wines. The harvesting of wine in La Rioja has an ancient lineage with origins dating back to the Phoenicians and the Celtiberians. The earliest written evidence