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| La Rioja |
Being immersed
in a wine region gives you such a great sense of the place. Our camp was
literally minutes from the main bodegas of the Rioja Alta area, just outside
Haro – the ‘capital’ of Rioja. We would ride our bikes around avoiding tractors
and spilt grapes, breathing the aroma of fermenting grape juice. Being here in
the middle of harvest was really exciting.
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| Bringing in the harvest |
Our 4 bodega tours
were incredibly interesting and all so different, ranging from a very very
traditional style of winemaking through to the mass production hi-tech of Marques
de Riscal. At R. Lopez de Heridia, they are still making wine the same way they
have been for 120 years, the only concession to the modern world is the use of
tractor and truck rather than horse and cart. They even make their own barrels.
This wine was the best we tasted. How they can achieve such an elegant wine
with an uncontrolled fermentation and 70 year old barrels in beyond me!
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| Hand-made to mass production |
We saw wine
being racked manually, oak fermenters being emptied by shovel, and ancient
basket presses in action, right through to mass production bottling lines,
doing 6000 bottles per hour!!!
Traditionally
Rioja is not released for sale until it is ready to drink, having spent its
required time in the barrel (1-5 years depending on its classification) and the
2-3 years in the bottle. For travellers like us this is wonderful as you can
buy properly aged wine for a reasonable price and drink it immediately. Naturally
we tasted a lot and bought too much – the magic cupboard is fit to burst. Life
doesn’t get much better…
The town of
Haro also boasts loads of excellent pintxo bars, so we didn’t miss San
Sebastian too much.
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| Pintxos, pintxos, pintxos... |
We took a bus
to Bilbao one day as I wanted to see the Bilbao Guggenheim to add to my
collection. The building is simply stunning, hard to imagine anyone conceiving
of its design, let alone building it. Gaudi on hallucinogens?? Also designed by
Frank Gehry, the winery hotel at Marques de Riscal is reminiscent of its big
brother in Bilbao with the same titanium plate curves and waves. The gallery is
definitely a case of form over substance as the collections were disappointing
– I really don’t ‘get’ modern art!
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| Guggenheim Bilbao - Marques de Riscal Winery Hotel |
We also spent
some rewarding hours in the local Dinastia Vivanco wine museum. Not being great
museum people, we were surprised at how long we spent there, and how
fascinating the exhibits. It was incredibly interesting and beautifully put
together. There was even a glass of wine to finish your visit!
The last 2
nights saw us watching amazing thunderstorms and enduring very heavy rain,
wondering how the growers would be feeling. Fortunately the days were dry
enough and most of the harvest has been bought in.
Time to move on
– but with enough in the cupboard to see us through and remind of us of our
time here.
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