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European wine European certainly associated with Spanish river (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

rioja

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'european wine' is the definition.
'Rioja' can be an answer for 'wine' (I know that Rioja is a type of red). I'm unsure of the 'european' bit.

'european certainly associated with spanish river' is the wordplay.
'european certainly' becomes 'ja' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'associated with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'spanish river' becomes 'rio' (I've seen this before).
'ja' after 'rio' is 'RIOJA'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for rioja that I've seen before include "North Spanish wine" , "it comes from grapevine" , "Open space (ancient Greek)" , "wine region" , "Spanish drink" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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