I need to book a Rioja wine tour for 6?
 

I have a car I need to book a wine tour for 6 preferably with a guide who has more English skills than I have Spanish skills :) though my daughter is 70% fluent.

6 people we can go to Rioja region any place, would like to see a cellar, a general tour, maybe a lunch, or small tasting, 5-8 hours, any recommendations?

Everything I Google seems touristy and the two people I did email did not reply.

Where are you departing from? I recommend the Rioja Alavesa region, those wineries around Samaniego or Laguardia, there are plenty of wineries, it should be fairly easy.

Wine touring in the Rioja
 

As Mikel says, getting around the Rioja is fairly easy, but you will need reservations and from your discription, a tour in English. You can do a small gourp tour or private tour with Thabuca (http://www.thabuca.es), or go it alone, but you'll need to make reservations in advance, as many of the wineries restrict the number of visitors and on give tours in English on certain days when they have someone available. Your other option is to go to one of the wineries that allow walk-ins for a tasting at the bar. Not very exciting, but it depends on what you're interested in experiencing.

If you want to have lunch, there are a few nice places in Laguardia, around Haro, Villabuena de Álava, Paganos and Logroño, but again, you'll need reservations.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...32406ff6a5.jpg
Bodegas Ysios


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Bodegas de la Marquesa - Valserrano

I wonder if they did not reply because there was not a person around that was fluent in writing English. Can your daughter write the e-mails in Spanish? Just an idea, maybe incorrect..

They were all on TripAdvisor and said multi-lingual: French, Spanish, English, and some even had Chinese/Japanese on them too.

Thanks Robert2016 that is what I'm looking for specific links. Everything I'm finding is package deals through travel sites.

An important question here is where are you staying?

Are you looking for a tour that takes you to the Rioja for the day from Bilbao or from San Sebastián (the latter makes for a very long day) or will you be based somewhere in the Rioja and for how long?
If so, where in the Rioja, since it's a large area?
This makes a difference as to the wineries you should target since they are spread apart, all over the region.

Is there only one specific date that will work or several dates? *The guides get very busy this year and tours need to be booked in advance.

As mentioned above, Thabuca is a local company based in Labastida that gives private tours and small group mini-van tours. These are not at all "touristy".
Jenny Siddall of Taste Rioja, based in Laguardia, also does private tours.
Taste Rioja Wine Tours
Another local, Celia Cardero of Sensum Rioja Tours, based in Logroño, also offers private tours. Hers is a new company.
https://www.facebook.com/sensumriojatours/

Tours include a tour to 2-3 wineries, tastings and a typical Riojan lunch, sometimes at the winery itself, sometimes at a noted local restaurant.

The following wineries do now have wine bars/shops where one can taste and purchase without taking a formal tour, but each has its own hours, most close for a lunch break and some aren't open on Sundays-
In Haro: C.V.N.E., Muga (wine bar/shop located in the Torre Muga), Roda, Gómez Cruzado (a personal favorite), Rioja Alta

In Páganos: Torre de Oña

In Villabuena de Alava (Eskuernaga in the Basque language): Bodegas de la Marquesa (Valserrano), another personal favorite, Luis Cañas

In Samaniego: Otazu

In Elciego: Marqués de Riscal does have a shop and a bar where one can sample/purchase its many labels. Riscal's tour + tasting is quite underwhelming and "touristy" (as mikelg knows!)

If you need a day tour from a base in Bilbao or San Sebastián, you should book with a wine touring company there. Just please let us know.
*

I think by definition any group wine tour for 6 people in Spain that must be in English is going to be "touristy". Who else would take it. So maybe not be so picky about that.

As I mentioned above these small group or private wine tours do include a nice lunch.
One of the best winery lunches can be had at Bodegas Baigorri in Samaniego.
The hearty Riojan lunch at the Eguren Ugarte winery just west of Laguardia is wonderful but truly gargantuan, goes on forever, wine and spirits flow generously, but it's not suited for the summer heat, since afterwards all you'll want to do is to take a long siesta!

For noted chef-driven restaurants in the area we like Amelibia in Laguardia and Héctor Oribe in Páganos.
The innovative restaurant inside the new Palacio Tondón in Briñas is getting fine food critic reviews, with chefs who trained at 2-Michelin starred Mugaritz.

I already contacted them. We are not naive.....we are tourists 100% what good would a tour in Spanish do me? Talk into my phone and translate each sentence lol. Stress out my daughter by making her translate all day? I'm not moving to Spain it is 10 days and maybe another trip in Jan 2020 to southern Spain Barcelona, Seville, Granada, Valencia, etc, but that will probably be it for me in my lifetime. Too many places to see only so much money and time to go around.

We only go on 1 or 2 vacations a year (work work work in America lol) and try to hit a country 2x for a total of 20-30 days total and then that is about it.

I feel privileged to be able to travel as much as we do.

I'm glad that you contacted the wine touring agencies and hope that one of them can arrange just what you're looking for, for you and your family.

I like to take my visitors to the less traveled wineries...try to avoid Marqués de Riscal, CVNE, YSIOS, or any of the big names if you want to have a real experience of what Rioja wine region, specially Rioja Alavesa, has to offer.

Ideally you would want to experience both, correct?

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Well...the big wineries offer quite touristy tours, with a lot of persons on them. I´m thinking of Gómez Cruzado in Haro, Ostatu in Samaniego, Alútiz in Samaniego, Casa Primicia in Laguardia, Tritium in Cenicero, Tobelos in Briñas...something smaller, family owned and with excellent wines.

I agree with mikelg about avoid the large group tours at Marqués de Riscal (view it/photograph it from outside, sample/purchase if you wish at the bar in the shop), Ysios (take photos from the outside like the one posted above), Bodega Bilbaínas (groups just too large to be enjoyable), C.V.N.E. (again, there's a wine bar/shop inside for tasting).
Of the small wineries in Laguardia with underground cellars, I prefer Casa Primicia, as mikelg suggests.

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A update we did this tour through "Rioja wine trips" chauffeur pick up, Lorena was the tour guide, 3 tastings, great time much more impressive than I ever thought it would be compared to what I've been on in the states.