Reading Rioja Wine Labels - why is called royal wine?

Problem
What does it mean? Why is it called that?

Answer
I managed to translate real from the Spanish to the English as royal. But why royal?

My first thought was that it must be a marketing name, wine fit for a king. I was wrong.

My Grape Deal source told me:
"It is called royal after the royal road."

Notice that vino is wine but vineyard is vina with the mark above the n, ñ. (You can type it by pressing on the key for n on the keyboard and then pressing the number 1 without letting go of the n).

Spanish - English
camino - road
camino royal - royal road
el - the
real - royal
viña - vineyard
vino - wine

English - Spanish
is it real? - es r e a l ?
real - real
road - camino
royal - real
royal road - camino royal
vineyard -viña (pronounced veen yuh)
wine - vino

Tourist Links
Royal roads exist in both Spain and the USA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Camino_Real_(California)


Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share posts.