País Vasco (the Basque Country)

Green vineyards cling to cliffs pounded by the swells of the Bay of Biscay. This is the Basque Country of northern Spain, home to San Sebastián and, by common consent, the gastronomic capital of the world.

Its wine is Txakoli, a lightly sparkling white made from the indigenous Hondarrabi Zuri.

Raised on sea mist and salt wind, its taut acidity and saline minerality are made to be enjoyed with every sense — not least through the escanciado, the ritual of pouring the wine down into the glass from a great height.

Pintxos lined up along the bar, seafood grilled over charcoal: a wine inseparable from Basque food culture, and a superb match for Japanese cooking too. Taste the wine of the sea, kept alive by a proud people of gastronomes.