I’ve decided on Rioja for my upcoming (August) Spain visit, and will have 2 days there. I have booked with LdH, but looking for some advice on other places to visit. Any recommendation for truly “special” places to visit? Quality of wine is of primary importance, but I’d love to here some opinions on visits that are more personalized, interesting…
I’m probably going to book 2-3 more visits since wife will be with me and she’s not overly interested in wine. If possible, best if the location is somewhere between Logrono and Haro.
Thanks in advance!
You got the best, the rest is gravy. : )
If you like contemporary architecture, several are worth driving by just to see - Marques de Riscal, Baigorri, Ysios.
Also, the museum at Dinastia Vivanco makes for a nice educational stop.
Daniel,
My husband and I visited Rioja (plus 4 other wine regions in Spain) in September 2010. For some good ideas, take a look at my write up: Spain | Wine Travel Around The World
Marilyn
Thanks for the recs. After reading the writeup I may try to organize a tasting at RdG.
My wife and I had a great visit to Finca Valpiedra in 2013. A complete contrast from LdH of course but very enjoyable tasting and beautiful property. Fits the location you are seeking.
We were just there earlier this week and had some wonderful tastings and tours. We did tours at LdH, Muga, Artadi, Riscal (we were staying there at the hotel which I highly recommend) and Remirez. We just did a tasting room stop for La Rioja Alta. The tours were typically over an hour and I think the Artadi one was over two hours since they drove us out to their key vineyard, El Pison. Perhaps five tours was a bit of a lot given the time spent but given the often very different winemaking philosophies among those wineries and the fact that it was our first visit to the region, we figured it was worth it. All of the tours were excellent and I would highly recommend stopping at each. Riscal was the least interesting of the bunch for the wine portion and Artadi was the best because of the personal touch, walking through a great vineyard and the quality of the wine. Some tours (Riscal, LdH and Muga) had 10-15 people while Artadi had 4 other people and I was the only one at Remirez. The cost per person ranged from 10 E to 30 E (though for the 30 E at LdH included a bottle of wine that sells for around 20 E). Many/most of the wineries seem to have tasting rooms so you do not necessarily need to do the tours. Also there are a number grouped next to each other in Haro while others are a short drive depending on where you are staying.
Overall we were very happy with our choices. I only bought wine at Remirez and La Rioja Alta since they had a quite favorable spread to prices in the U.S.
When I have more time I can post with some restaurant comments.
Here’s the text from an email i received from Contador a couple of years ago - this will probably be the best advice I ever give on this forum:
“But if you want to taste our wines you can go to La III Estación, our winebar, where you can taste and buy all of our wines. It is placed in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, in the Main Street (C/ El Remedio, 14). It will be open from 12:30.”
The bartender was old, had a face of leather, and spoke no English … It was awesome!!!
Spent a few days in Haro this summer. Lopez de Heredia was the highlight; not only did they give us each a bottle of wine after the tour, we also got complementary passes to the Guggenheim in Bilbao because of a ‘cultural partnership’ with LdH, so the tour was basically free. We also toured La Rioja Alta, which was also great and did a drop in tasting at Muga.