Yes. That was a few weeks before Covid and we emailed them. It was a tougher appointment to get at the time.
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Great thread - headed to Haro for a couple of nights next month.
We have all the wineries squared away but finding dining and wine bar options a little more difficult to research - does anyone have any recommendations?
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What wineries do you have picked out?
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Have appointments at La Rioja Alta/Muga/CVNE. Still holding out hope for LdH, but not holding my breath.
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Exact Same for me in December. Look forward to your report. And if you get anywhere with LdH.
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I visited a few years ago and posted a lengthy thread here.
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Thanks Sherri for sharing. I’ll definitely check it out.
Based on everythere here, I’m thinking LDH will be tough, and I’m saving my unicorns for Bordeaux. We’ll probably do Muga and La Rioja Alta, and then either Gomez Crusado or Roda.
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Sorry for what will sound like bragging here but our wine tour group enjoyed an incredible guided tour and tasting with Maria Jose Lopez de Heredia in May 2022. Not enough superlatives to describe the experience or the wines, including 81, 73, 68 RED GRs and the 64 white GR. Maria Jose is as passionate, engaging and knowledgeable a host as one could hope for. This once in a lifetime experience was made possible by a confluence of circumstances - a close friendship with the family and the Canadian agent representing them as well as with our tour host the wine writer Tony Aspler.
I will say another tour and visit on the trip to CVNE across the street was exceptional thanks to the very articulate and charming representative Natalia Bermejo - who described their history and wine making better than 99% of other reps I’ve ever experienced. I recommend it highly.
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Steve, that looks amazing.
This is a little off-topic, but the same trip, just on the French side of the border. We’re seeing a friend in Perpignan, then driving to Bordeaux. I’m wondering if Toulouse is worth more than just a quick stop. Trying to decide if we should do an overnight there. The trip is only 10 nights, so overnights are a premium.
Does anyone have thoughts on Toulouse?
Just spent 48 hours in Rioja so am now an expert in the region. (Just kidding).
Anyway, I’ll offer a full update when back in the states, but if useful, I’ll report that we had tasting flights at Gomez Cruzado (excellent), Roda (interesting, worth it) and grabbed glasses and a spit bucket at Rioja Alta and sipped and spit. Then, we went up the hill from the station area and had a snack at one of the many tapas restaurants around the main square. I did not book any tours, as my interest in 90+ minute winery tours is modest at best, so I felt as though I sufficiently did Haro in about a half a day.
Heredia was closed on the sunday we were there, so that was a bummer, albeit an expected one.
We stayed in Laguardia, which is a unbelievably charming, at the Hospederia de Parajes. Tasting appointments today were at Bideona, Izadi, Valserrano and Abeica.
All very much worthwhile, and in each case, my wife and I were the only people there. A far cry from the Haro scene. At Bideona, they are trying to focus on terroir wines, instead of “wines of a style,” and we very much enjoyed tasting through their various “parcel” wines. Worth a stop for some fresh tasting reds.
I booked the Izadi e-bike tour, because I though riding biked through the vineyard sounded like fun. This was incredibly enjoyable. A two hour tour was 40 euros and included a small tapas picnic and tasting of two wines, including an excellent small batch single vineyard tempranillo called “Regalo”. I’d highly recommend this experience to anyone–awesome host and the best thing we did in Rioja.
Valserrano was highly informative and the wines were very good. Abeica came on my radar because I saw a tweet from the WA Spain reviewer saying they were his top discovery of a recent tasting trip or something like that. Booked a tour and tasting and a family member of the relatively small winery led us around and tasted us on the new single vineyard stuff he and his cousin are focusing on in addition to the carbonic joven and crianza and reserva the family has always done. All the wines were good but the single vineyard stuff was special.
If you book, you might want to ask about this, as he suggested they don’t always pour the SV stuff.
Dinners both nights in Logrono. One night a tapas crawl and one night at the very good Tondeluna. Lovely country, friendly people and, and even if Rioja wines are never going to be my top choice, tons of fun to taste.
I spent a ton of time researching before hand, and I found it difficult to figure out where to taste. Most of the cool nouveau producers didn’t email me back (don’t blame them) and some places would only have one English engagement per day and it would be at a time that didn’t work for us (again, don’t blame them.) But ultimately everything worked out and we bought some nice wines.
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Dave, sounds like an awesome trip and I appreciate the research you’ve put in. Is Bideona new? I can’t find anything much about them online except for their website? Also, who were some of your targets that you weren’t able to connect with?
Hey Dave- Great report. I am trying to avoid 90min tastings as well- but Cruzado only offers reservations online for 90min tours+tasting. Did you just walk-in and do a tasting flight at Cruzado? Thanks!
They do have just tastings. It’s easy to miss, but if you click here, there is a tab next to the tours option that says “only tastings.”
https://www.gomezcruzado.com/en/gomez-cruzado-wine-tourism-fine-rioja-wines-from-el-barrio-de-la-estacion/
My wife and I split the $18 flight. A big, rich white called Montes Obarenes was really, really nice.
Totally missed that point! Thanks!
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Man, too many to mention. I was reading snapshots of producers in this “Wines of Northern Spain” book I have and pulling out interesting sounding wineries and adding them to a Google Doc, then adding more names from lists of places that were making single vineyard wines and attributes like that. Very scattershot. Then, I trolled web sites to see who invited contact and had interesting looking wines, and fired off emails. Sierra De Tolonos, Exopto, Exeo, Akutain all come to mind, but there were lots. Places like Luis Canas or Amaren, which just seemed kind of fun, could not accommodate my schedule. Surprisingly hard to Tetris the whole thing together!
Bideona is new-ish. I believe our host told us they opened in 2018. Had never heard of them but saw them on Google maps after I had homed in on a certain area, checked the web site and the wines all sounded interesting. They definitely were!
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Awesome, thanks again. So much great info in your posts!
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Hi Steve and thanks for the report. Can you provide extra info on how were you able to book this tour?
Thanks in advance
We visited LdH in the fall of 2019. The tour was incredible. I was persistent and it seemed like it wasn’t going to happen, but a few days before our requested date we received an invite. E mail early and often.
We could never get used to the clock in Spain. Anytime we wanted to eat or drink everything was closed. When we wanted to sleep the streets were alive and noisy. Everyone in the wine district are friendly and inviting, the folks in Haro not so much. Also there is no street parking and the town lot looks very dubious. We found a lot at the Santander station that was secure but €20 a day.
I would definitely recommend the La Rioja Alta tasting bar. Many vintages of all the wines available btg.
I made a real effort to speak Spanish to people in Haro and later in Saint Vittoria. It seemed to really piss the locals off. I think it was because Basquaise seems to be the prominent language.
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Hi Joe,
I saw your note on the trip to Rioja. I’m planning a trip in the Fall of 2023. Can you please give me the name of the wine guide you used?
Best,
Bob Glasson
bglasson45@gmail.com
I’ll look it up and get back to you.