What is "somontano"

Somontano is a Spanish Denominación de Origen (DO) for wines, created in 1984, and located in the county of the same name, in the province of Huesca, ( Aragon). It borders the regions of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza in the North, Hoya de Huesca in the West, the Monegros in the South, and the region of Litera in the East. Wine production is centred on the town of Barbastro. The name Somontano, as its Latin roots suggest, means “beneath the mountain” – this perfectly defines this geographic area which spreads out from the foothills of the Pyrenees down to the Ebro valley. The DO includes 43 municipalities, most of them in the Somontano area, and a few bordering on Ribagorza and the Monegros. There are over 4000 hectares of vines and about 500 individual grape-growers.