Spanish Wine Regions

Thinking about a Spanish wine tour, specifically the Rioja region. Anyone been? Impressions? We are used to US wine tastings (vineyards close together and near accomodations, driver, etc.).

Thanks in advance.

I went with my wife in 2015. We hired a local tour operator and they handled transportation from Bilbao to the wineries, a one night stay in the walled city of Laguardia and then day 2 tasting. We got dropped off in San Sebastian so we could eat at Mugaritz which was the #6 restaurant in the world at the time.

Day 1: visted Bodegas Artadi, La Rioja Alta with lunch and Valenciso.

Day 2 we did Muga, Bodegas Roda and Bodegas Baigorri with lunch.

Muga and La Rioja Alta were really neat to visit. I enjoyed seeing the facilities there. Valenciso was interesting as we had a 1 on 1 with the owner and he pulled out a really nice library reserva Rioja.

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Only a few bodegas are set up like Napa. You should check first. If you go to Haro, you can walk from one bodega to another. The bigger ones have regular tours. Literally next door to each other are Muga, Rioja Alta, Lopez de Heredia, CVNE, Cruzado, and Roda. You can walk to all of them.

Farther east and needing to drive would be Marques de Riscal, and towards Logrono, which is about an hour or so away, would be Vina Real, Marques de Caceres, Altanza, Marqués de Murrieta, and Franco Españolas. Vivanca may be worth a visit too.

That would be a nice tour and you would not have to be traveling all day. As far as a driver - no clue. I always drove myself. Remember that general wine region hasn’t been developed into a big tourist destination with golf courses, big hotels and casinos, etc. Riscal has a huge ugly Frank Gehry hotel and a few of the others are thinking in those terms, but if you’re hoping for Napa, that’s not the place to go. Haro is a tiny town, Lagrono is a little larger and you may be better off near there, unless you want to stay at the Riscal hotel.

But there are companies over there that will set up a tour for you and if you don’t know people over there or the specific bodegas, that would be my recommendation.

I have heard decent things about these guys but have absolutely no first-hand knowledge or affiliation:

https://riojawinetrips.com/our-rioja-wine-tours/

The other thing you may do is contact the Consejo Regulador, or better, Wines from Spain, which is at:

Trade Commission of Spain
405 Lexington Ave. New York, NY 10174

They are interested in promoting the region and would have up to date info, as it’s been a few years since I’ve been there. Good luck.

My wife and I used Rioja Wine Tours last August, and they were great. I picked the “unusual suspects” tour, because I wanted to see smaller producers that I cannot get easily back in the states and learn more about the authentic rioja tradition. Very different experience than Napa, in fact the complete opposite of the touristy tasting experience. We were pretty much the only ones wherever we went, with the winemaker or the grower themselves, no formal “tasting rooms” to speak of. Very little was available for sale, it pretty much all went to distributors. My wife is an architect who used to work for Frank Gehry, so we stopped to take pictures by the hotel, but didn’t stay there, or go any wineries as commercial as Riscal.

Mike - so what did she think of the building? Not like he had any desire to blend in with the surroundings at all! In any event, Riscal is not a bodega to pass up. Any winery that can put out millions of bottles of age-worthy decent wine year after year is one to respect. I would rather have a bottle of their reserva than a wine costing much more from some of the producers I’ve had in CA and elsewhere.

The authentic Rioja tradition produced wine unlike anything made there today. While the Visgoths made wine there and it was continued in the Middle Ages, the wine was mostly like a rosado and it was done in big tanks. In the late 1700s Don Manuel Quintano, a priest, travelled to France and when he came back, he got some people to begin using wooden barrels. That was an innovation. That was the tradition for about a hundred years, until Murrieta visited France and came back to establish the first commercial bodega in 1852 to make wine like that of the Médoc. For his efforts, he was made a Marqués. Marqués de Riscal came next. Both of them brought the idea of barriques rather than the large casks, but they had a hard time convincing anyone to use those since they were not traditional and were more of a PITA. The general idea was that the big bodegas would buy grapes from the small landholders.

After phylloxera hit France and the French wine makers showed up, barrels became more common and that’s when CVNE, Lopez and the others were started. They were innovators at the time. They also bought out some of the smaller guys and/or planted their own vineyards. That’s the tradition from the late 1800s that most people think is “traditional” Rioja.

Then the idea was to bottle estate juice only, and then vineyard designated fruit, and that’s “modern” thinking. There’s still a lot of discussion taking place over there, so it’s an interesting place to visit, since it’s still in flux.

Greg, thanks for the history lesson, you are correct I was referring to the late 1800’s as “traditional”!

My comment about Riscal was not meant to be pejorative towards the winemaking, just that we were looking to visit smaller scale producers unavailable back in the US. Regarding the building, the wife was not impressed. We began our trip in Bilbao, visiting the Guggenheim Museum that Frank designed. That was much more impressive, as it is the “original” of his works in that style, designed with cutting edge techniques, and seamlessly integrated with its surroundings. So while I understand the motivation behind Riscal’s decision to try and recreate the “Bilbao effect”, it just comes across as derivative.

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Is that a fact? Who decides? [rofl.gif]

This web site has the World’s 50 best restaurants. At the time Mugaritz was #6.

There are other very high ranking restaurants in San Sebastian

Excellent info gents. Greg T, you continually add depth to any discussion on this board for all things Spain.

Thank you all for providing some detail that I find very useful for an upcoming trip next Spring. We’re going with another couple and spending 10 days in Portugal before moving on to San Sebastian as a base for another 10 days.

I have a dear friend who reps for LdH and lives nearby. She has connections to get us visits at many of the top and preferred wineries including Muga, CVNE, Vega Sicilia, La Rioja Alta and a couple of others that I know of.

When it gets closer, I`ll prevail upon you and others to give us some more recs re restaurants, places to tour and things to do. Thanks in advance.

Yes, including Rekondo that has an amazing cellar and good, reasonably priced food.

We enjoyed just going up and down streets in Haro tasting our way through along with the obligatory LDH visit.

All I can say is wait til you see the prices of the wines from the winery direct. I cringe when I buy Spanish wine now knowing how cheap they are at the source. I have some of the 890 Gran Reserva’s from La Rioja Alta and some of the Torre Muga’s that are WAY below bottle shop costs here in the US

Perhaps this is suggestive of taking a wine carrier along to fill it up as well as having some shipped especially if this is true for relatively mature wines= 1950s-80s, not easily available here.

Perhaps this is suggestive of taking a wine carrier along to fill it up as well as having some shipped especially if this is true for relatively mature wines= 1950s-80s, not easily available here.

Take a carrier with you for sure. Or a few.

And stop in a few stores. You never know what you’ll find.

older vintages too?

I didn’t stop in any stores since we didn’t drive but they definitely had great value direct at the winery. They did have some library vintages at some of the wineries we visited but we maxed out on the number of bottles we could bring home. I would definitely look into shipping them back next time instead of carrying.

I originally wrote this as part of the earlier post but deleted it in the interest of brevity.

But yes.

I was leaving town heading back to Madrid and passed a wine store. I had time so I went in. Stone building between two others. No AC but it was considerably cooler than the outside, which was brutally hot. I poked around and found a few 1982s and a 1994 Imperial GR. Great prices. I mentioned to the owner that we don’t see those all that often in the US. “Same here,” he replied. So I took them all.

Another trip, a buddy found some old Port. He asked the owner how long he’d had them and the guy said since release. He asked if there were any others. Ended up taking home a half case.

If you were even to find those in the US, they would be much much more.

Thanks so much for this. I’ll be on the hunt when there.

Just got back from our trip. Here are my notes:

Lodging:
Much of the information talks about the great small towns throughout Rioja, not much about Haro. The reason is that the small towns are really interesting and Haro is not that interesting. It grew in the early years of the region because of its transportation hub. Laguardia or Logrono are more interesting places to stay.

While convenient, if you don’t do the tours, the tasting rooms in Haro are nothing more than a place to get a glass of their current pours of wine. All were pretty cheap and within a few hundred yards of one another, but the tasting rooms are nothing spectacular. If you are not doing a tour, I would go on a tour outside of Haro to a more impressive winery. The architecture of the rural wineries is stunning. Also, it was pretty hard to schedule tours because most of them started at 10-10:30 and last up to 2 hours, with the next ones starting at 11:30-12, which made it hard to schedule back to back. But you are no more than 5 minutes walk between these wineries.

Hotel Maria Cristina - San Sebastian - Not located on a beach, but just a few minutes from old town, the beach and Gros (locals area). Good location unless you are going to the beach everyday. Great service, comfortable room, an american five star hotel. Breakfast is fantastic.

Hotel Lounges - San Sebastian - Right on the beach. If you are going to the beach everyday, then think about this hotel. It’s farther from food, but great beach location. Next to ferris wheel.

Wine and Soul Suites - Haro - Good location. Short walk to the wineries and to food. Grocery store around the corner. Easy to get in and out. Parking is a 5 minute walk. No staff, so no local help. The Hotel Los Agustinos seems like it would be a good choice too.

Hospederia De Los Parajes - Laguardia - Great place. Middle of town. Good restaurant. Best wine bar selection of our trip. Bar had Abel Mendoza wine.

Westin Palace - Madrid - Great Hotel. Great location. Steps from the Prado. Not far from Puerta Del Sol and the Plaza Mayor.


Food:
Generally, breakfast is sleepy. Lunch is 1-2pm and Dinner is after 7. Careful going to eat - some places may appear open, but the kitchen does not open until 8pm.

No. 6 - San Sebastian - Wine store and small restaurant. Outstanding service and food. Had small production wines that were great and didn’t show up on any wine apps. Food was outstanding. Ham sandwich was our favorite.

Hector Oribe - Araba - Great lunch spot. Hard to find in the middle of a small town, but well worth it. Stayed for a couple of hours. Most of the other people here were winemakers or bodega owners.

Mercado San Miguel - Madrid - Upscale Tapas food court. Great spot. Delicious food and many different types.

La Baracca - Madrid - Outstanding paella. Good wine list.

Pintxos (Tapas)
San Sebastian - We had recommendations, but seemed like the places changed and we could not find them. In old town, the best plan is to walk through the area and go into the places where there are a lot of people and ask what the specialty is. It is sometimes a quirky food, but try it anyway. Also, best to ask for a hot (freshly prepared) pinxtos, otherwise the food may have been out awhile. But we still had some food like that and it was usually still pretty yummy.
A few of our favorites:
Le Cena - San Sebastian - Calamari
A Fuego Negro - San Sebastian - Mini Burger
Ne Neu - San Sebastian - French Toast
Casa Urola - San Sebastian
Borda Berri - San Sebastian

Rioja -
About 12 companies control 50% of the wine. Heavily regulated, so the region does what those 12 companies want.

Wineries:
Shipping back to the US is crazy expensive - $100 for 6 bottles. Try www.layawine.com or www.enviarvino.com for shipping facilitators.

Gomez Cruzado (Tour) - Haro- Great winery - About 200,000 bottles per year (what they call a small winery). Can get in limited states in the US. Started in late 1800s. Now owned by locals. For about 3 decades it sold all its wine to Mexico because of an investor and fell off the wine map. They have refocused with new owners and made a huge investment in the winery. Great facility with modern steel and concrete tanks. Starting to use concrete eggs. Reserva and Honorable reds were our favorite, great tasting well rounded reds with balanced fruit and tannins.

Roda - Haro - Tasting. Modern wine. Like Cirsion the best (but was $200/bottle). You could go into a small piece of the wine cellar off the tasting room.

Muga - Haro - Flight tasting. Higher amount of blends than I like. Staff not overly helpful. Didn’t learn a lot.

La Rioja Alta - Haro- Tasting only. Staff not overly helpful. Didn’t learn a lot.

Lopez de Heredia - Haro - Tour - Very traditional Rioja. Incredible tour, even if the wine is not your favorite. Still family owned. Tasting room has the original shop in the back. Tour through the cellar, which reminds you of the warehouse scene from Indiana Jones. 37k square foot cellar. They use every traditional methods - no stainless steel or concrete tanks. Youngest wooden tanks are 50 years old. They make all of their own barrels from American oak. One guy makes one barrel a day and has an apprentice that fixes broken barrels. Even the racking was by traditional methods. Our favorite tour.

Amaren - Samaniego - 200,000 bottle winery. Great experience and facility. They put a lot of energy behind the tour business. A Napa like tour. Comprehensive tour with barrel tasting and great english. Family owned. Huge investment in the winery. They were unwrapping new french oak barrels and we go to push them around and see the toasting inside. White wine was fruity and crisp. Refreshing with a hint of depth. 2010 Reserva 60 was the highlight and about $30 a bottle. Loved this wine. Strong flavors, but good balance. Ordered a case to be shipped home. Definitely will try to keep buying from here. May only be distributed in NY and California.

Abel Mendoza - San Vicente de la Sonsierra - No website. Very small production. Maybe cult wine with a winemaker that is not hesitant to depart from traditional winemaking? Makes 8-10 different wines per year. Great wine, would love to have more, but it’s really hard to find. Tried the 2019 Jarrarte and 2017 Grenach/Graciano. No US distribution.

Puelles Bodega - Abalos - No frills winery. No tour. No flashy tanks or barrel rooms. Just good wine made at elevation. Very good value wines here since they don’t put a lot into the “tour” business. Great Gran Reserva under $20.

Casa Primica - Laguardia - Amazing tasting room. Can taste 3 wines. Produces about 500,000 bottles per year. They have a full organic line of wine too. Graciano aged in Hungarian oak is an interesting wine and good change of pace from the heavy tempranillo of the region.