Thanks. 
Sorry @bglasson . I forgot to circle back here after the weekend.
The guide we used was David at LoveRioja. Great guy. Friendly. Good english skills. He’ll work with you on scheduling what you want, offer his suggestions, merge together into an itinerary for you. We had 12 in our group and he even arranged for us a 16 seat passenger van like you see at the airports fully equipped with WiFi. I never thought he’d come up with that one for a group so large.
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Thanks, Joe – I really appreciate the contact information.
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If you found out about LdH at the last minute, did that require moving around/canceling other visits?
Sorry for the late reply.
We didn’t really have any other tastings booked at the time. We walked into both La Rioja Alta and Muga. The only tour I was interested in was LdH.
The little wine district is very nice with some of the big names within walking distance from Haro.
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I second a visit to Bideona.
Their vineyards are really interesting to visit, and their wines are stunning!
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T[quote=“Shan_A, post:44, topic:286807, full:true”]
If you found out about LdH at the last minute, did that require moving around/canceling other visits?
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That would depend on how much you value the importance of visiting LdH. I visited 3X in the past and twice moved/cancelled a conflicting appointment because LdH is at the op of my must-do hierarchy. In all instances, I had no regrets.
I bet all of your other appointments really appreciate that.
Not that they likely care and frankly, neither do I. La Rioja Alta, Muga and other big neighbors with large organized visiting groups doesn’t care missing out 1 more person. In my experiences LdH confirms appointments with days in advance. I send others the regrets note and they send back a thank you for letting us know.
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This. LdH is a singular experience and the epitome of Haro. Unless you have something personal with a winemaker at Gomez Cruzado, CVNE, or maybe Roda, I’d do whatever it takes for LdH.
I’ve been fortunate enough to do two visits, both led by Maria, with groups of MWs and MW students. Only visits in my career that have rivaled it are 4 hours of barrel tasting with Daniel Ravier and 3 hours 1-on-1 with Humberto Jardim.
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I suppose everybody wants to go to LdeH or Muga or…
I’ll throw a name in there that I think will be big in the future: Miguel Merino.
I’ll second Miguel Merino. Miguel was a great host. Opened library wines for us.
Bumping this up in the hope of getting slightly different information. We’ll have part of a day in Rioja in June but timing is too indefinite to make any appointments. When we’ve been there in the past, we always made appointments and have visited the usual suspects (LdH, La Rioja Alta, Muga, etc.) and others, but were also able to just stop in at places like Roda, Gomez Cruzado, Luis Canas and more.
That was all before Covid, though. Are there still places you can stop in for a tasting without an appointment? All suggestions are welcomed.
I wrote up a brief trip report above a couple of years ago but can confirm that in Sept 22 you could just pop into Roda, Gomez Cruzado and some of the others.
Thanks. I wasn’t sure from your report if you had appointments for the tastings or just stopped in.
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If you are able, have your hotel call ahead a day (or two) before. In my case, I was trying for a walk-in in Penedes. The hotel struck out with the first winery, but the second winery had a block of time available.
Just left Rioja. We did tours at LdH and Muga and walked into a few other places. Try to go to LdH. Very unique and special even for someone like me who has visited a lot of wineries in the world.