La Rioja and Basque Country
May 5th, 2019, 12:42 PM
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La Rioja and Basque Country
We will be in Spain for a month in September and October, beginning in Barcelona. After 5 nights in Barcelona, we will rent a car and drive to La Rioja and Basque Country for PERHAPS 3 nights. Food, wine and sightseeing are our main objectives. We definitely want to take a wine tour (all day?) as opposed to a self-guided tour of the wineries. I originally thought we would base in Bilbao. However, it seems like most of the wine tours leave out of the Rioja region. I could use some advice on where to base. Logrona, Laguardia seem to be options. We would want to day trip to Bilbao and perhaps to San Sebastian from our base. Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated! Also, any recommendations for wine tours would also be welcome.
May 5th, 2019, 02:20 PM
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Staying in the Rioja
Depending on your budget, and the best area in which to stay, you can check out the 12-room Hotel Villa de Ábalos (https://hotelvilladeabalos.com), in the village of Ábalos, the Hotel Viura (https://www.hotelviura.com) in Villabuena de Álava, Bodlegas Valdelana (https://www.bodegasvaldelana.com) in Elciego, and of course the Hotel Marques de Riscal if you are a Marriott points type.
Villa de Ábalos
You can take a wine tour (small group or private) with Thabuca Wine Tours (https://thabuca.es), or do a self-drive tour. For a self-drive tour you will need to make reservations ahead of time. Not all wineries are open for visits every day, and most have limited hours, especially during the harvest season. If you don't speak Spanish, you need to understand that tours in English are normally offered only once a day, and not every day of the week, so you will have to plan ahead. There are some wineries with tasting rooms available to sample their wines if you don't want to take a tour and tasting, but again, reservations are required at all but a few of them. Also note that most of the wineries close for lunch, usually from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm, with only a handfull reopening in the afternoon. Marques de Riscal in Elciego and La Rioja Alta in Haro are normally open at lunch time. You can also check Maribel's guide to the Rioja for more information.
Bodegas Marques de Murrieta
Villa de Ábalos
You can take a wine tour (small group or private) with Thabuca Wine Tours (https://thabuca.es), or do a self-drive tour. For a self-drive tour you will need to make reservations ahead of time. Not all wineries are open for visits every day, and most have limited hours, especially during the harvest season. If you don't speak Spanish, you need to understand that tours in English are normally offered only once a day, and not every day of the week, so you will have to plan ahead. There are some wineries with tasting rooms available to sample their wines if you don't want to take a tour and tasting, but again, reservations are required at all but a few of them. Also note that most of the wineries close for lunch, usually from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm, with only a handfull reopening in the afternoon. Marques de Riscal in Elciego and La Rioja Alta in Haro are normally open at lunch time. You can also check Maribel's guide to the Rioja for more information.
Bodegas Marques de Murrieta
May 5th, 2019, 02:54 PM
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Thank you for this information. I have checked Maribel’s guides. A great resource. In your opinion, would the lodgings that you mention make good bases for going to Bilbao and perhaps San Sebastián?
May 5th, 2019, 09:20 PM
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I highly recommend staying at Marques de Riscal. Great restaurant, a Caudalie spa, onsite vineyard and winery. We had a small group private wine tour there but I don’t know if they provide wine tours to the public. The hotel can probably arrange nearby wine tours though. Hotel was designed by Frank Gehry, the architect of the Guggenheim. It’s about an hour drive to Bilboa and a little further to San Sebastián. San Sebastián has some exceptional restaurants and its international film festival is held every fall so you may want to see if it coincides with your visit.
May 5th, 2019, 11:35 PM
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Rioja wine region is divided into Rioja Alavesa (in the Basque Country), Rioja Alta and Rioja Baja. La Rioja is an autonomous community and it has only wine in some areas. Haro, for instance, is in Rioja Alta and Laguardia is in Rioja Alavesa (as Marqués de Riscal, in Elciego). Tours can be done either from Bilbao (one houra approx) or directly from there, from SS it takes much longer and I would not recommend it. Some of my favorites are Gómez Cruzado in Haro, Ostatu in Samaniego, Casa Primicia in Laguardia, Tritium in Tricio (Rioja Alta)...but check availability and time for English tours.
May 6th, 2019, 02:27 AM
#7
I'd not commute from the coast to Rioja. Robert is a real expert on the area. I have stayed in Haro and I could imagine staying in Logrona, some of the small villages are very small. (dull, shot the horse etc)
May 12th, 2019, 05:52 PM
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I would stay in Rioja vs traveling from Bilbao or San Sebastian to cut down on travel. I stayed in Laguardia and it was a nice little village although pretty quiet at night. We did an afternoon lunch in Logrono and I think I would have preferred staying there. We did a tour with Love Rioja and highly recommend it. David is so fun and personable. He went out of his way to give us recommendations and helped one of the girls on the tour with shipping her wine back. Have fun! Rioja and San Sebastian are amazing!
Love Rioja :: Tours, wine and life style
Love Rioja :: Tours, wine and life style
May 13th, 2019, 01:40 PM
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We will be driving from San Sebastian to Laguardia and staying there from Sept. 14, departing for Barcelona Sept.-18. We chose Laguardia after lots of research and travel forum suggestions. We've been to San Se before and love it, but never explored Rioja and are looking forward to that. I've also looked at many Rioja tour sites and have not found any we (2 couples) can afford, so we'll be choosing the wineries we think would be good to visit and making our own reservations.
May 13th, 2019, 04:04 PM
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We have stayed in Logrono twice and think it makes a nice base for the area. Will return in late June. The area has a terrific tourist board with a nice office in Logrono. Lots of night life, especially on Calle Laurel a kind of ultimate tapas crawl street
Lots of nice wineries in the area, many mentioned already. Let me add Ysios. Have never been inside but the view from the vineyards is fantastic. The winery itself is stunning. Calatrava architect. Enough said. Must see.
Lots of nice wineries in the area, many mentioned already. Let me add Ysios. Have never been inside but the view from the vineyards is fantastic. The winery itself is stunning. Calatrava architect. Enough said. Must see.
Last edited by JulieVikmanis; May 13th, 2019 at 04:07 PM. Reason: typo
May 14th, 2019, 03:43 PM
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Visiting Bodegas in the Rioja
marsha1340 "so we'll be choosing the wineries we think would be good to visit and making our own reservations."
Making your own reservations is fine, but remember, if you want a tour in English, they are normally only offered once each day at those wineries who have someone available to do a tour in English, and typicaly not offered every day of the week. There are now a good handful of wineries that have tasting rooms/bars, but of the ones I'm familiar with, only a few allow walkins, so plan on making reservations. The wine tasting bar at the Marques de Riscal (www.marquesderiscal.com) and La Rioja Alta (www.riojalta.com) are open to walkins. Bodegas Roda (www.roda.es) should be open, but you'll have to check the hours. Gómez Cruzado (www.gomezcruzado.com/en) normally welcomes walkins, but having a reservation is better. Bodegas Valdelana (https://www.bodegasvaldelana.com) has a nice stop and museum. *Bodegas Ostatu (www.ostatu.com/en/) also has a wine tasting room where you can try some of their outstanding wines, as does Viñedos y Bodegas de La Marquesa (https://valserrano.com/en/).
*
Making your own reservations is fine, but remember, if you want a tour in English, they are normally only offered once each day at those wineries who have someone available to do a tour in English, and typicaly not offered every day of the week. There are now a good handful of wineries that have tasting rooms/bars, but of the ones I'm familiar with, only a few allow walkins, so plan on making reservations. The wine tasting bar at the Marques de Riscal (www.marquesderiscal.com) and La Rioja Alta (www.riojalta.com) are open to walkins. Bodegas Roda (www.roda.es) should be open, but you'll have to check the hours. Gómez Cruzado (www.gomezcruzado.com/en) normally welcomes walkins, but having a reservation is better. Bodegas Valdelana (https://www.bodegasvaldelana.com) has a nice stop and museum. *Bodegas Ostatu (www.ostatu.com/en/) also has a wine tasting room where you can try some of their outstanding wines, as does Viñedos y Bodegas de La Marquesa (https://valserrano.com/en/).
*
May 16th, 2019, 12:38 PM
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In addition to the great info above, I'll just add a few notes:
I agree that San Sebastián makes for a very long day trip from the Rioja, while Bilbao is much more doable. From our base in the Rioja Alavesa last summer we were able to zip up to Bilbao to meet MikelG for a great, long lunch. When we visit San Sebastián, we stay in San Sebastián.
An excellent Rioja Alavesa base, if you don't mind a small town and have a car, would be the atmospheric medieval walled village of Laguardia. From there you can easily tour the wineries in town (Casa Primicia, the outside of Ysios for its Calatrava architecture, Artadi), many wineries of the Rioja Alta in Haro to the west (some now with wine bars/shops so no lengthy tours required), pretty Briones to the south (excellent Vivanco Wine Museum), in the Rioja Alavesa in the villages of Páganos (Torre de Oña with wine bar), Samaniego (Baigorri, Ostatu with wine bar, Amaren), Villabuena de Alava (Bodegas de la Marquesa, Luis Cañas, two very personal favorites!) and Elciego (Valdelana, Riscal for the architecture), or those between Laguardia and Logroño to the east (C.V.N.E. Viña Real for the architecture).
Logroño offers more "nightlife" for those who don't enjoy sleepy little farm communities, and as Julie says, an excellent tourist board and great dining in all price ranges from the casual Tondeluna and Wine Fandango to Michelin stars. Wineries in Logroño aren't walkable (with 1 exception) as they are in Laguardia or Haro. The truly stunning, highly prestigious estate of Marqués de Murrieta, the prettiest of them all, sits outside of town, but one can take a taxi.
What we enjoy is going into Logroño at night to do a tapas/pintxos crawl in the old quarter in the "Laurel" area, with its side-by-side bars on the streets of Laurel, Travesía de Laurel, San Agustín and Albornoz) and those on the Calle de San Juan (Tastavin, Umm no solo Tapas). As Julie says, Laurel is the ultimate tapas crawl zone.
For local wine touring companies, the pioneer, Thabuca Tours, does an excellent job, both on their private tours and their small group ones, but they get booked up quickly. *I've also used a local guide, Jenny Siddall of Taste Rioja and a free lance guide, Celia Cardero at [email protected].
In addition to those that Robert mentions, the following two wineries in Haro do now have wine bars or shops, where one can sample without taking a tour:
C.V.N.E.
Rioja Alta
Muga (in the tower)
All of the wine bars/shops have differing opening hours so one should check on line.
One can order a glass of wine at the Zaha Hadid designed glass "decanter" of the venerable, century-old Bodegas López de Heredia-Viña Tondonia but commented tastings aren't given for walk-ins. Their superb, small group tour is now expensive but includes a bottle of wine.
A new and very comfortable 4-star hotel that's getting much praise is the Palacio de Tondón in tiny Briñas in the Rioja Alta, just north of Haro, with a noted restaurant run by alums of Michelin-starred Mugaritz. There's also the boutique Hospedería Los Parajes & Castillo El Collado in Laguardia and the "Flintstones stage set looking" Eguren Ugarte on the road between Laguardia & Páganos.
I agree that San Sebastián makes for a very long day trip from the Rioja, while Bilbao is much more doable. From our base in the Rioja Alavesa last summer we were able to zip up to Bilbao to meet MikelG for a great, long lunch. When we visit San Sebastián, we stay in San Sebastián.
An excellent Rioja Alavesa base, if you don't mind a small town and have a car, would be the atmospheric medieval walled village of Laguardia. From there you can easily tour the wineries in town (Casa Primicia, the outside of Ysios for its Calatrava architecture, Artadi), many wineries of the Rioja Alta in Haro to the west (some now with wine bars/shops so no lengthy tours required), pretty Briones to the south (excellent Vivanco Wine Museum), in the Rioja Alavesa in the villages of Páganos (Torre de Oña with wine bar), Samaniego (Baigorri, Ostatu with wine bar, Amaren), Villabuena de Alava (Bodegas de la Marquesa, Luis Cañas, two very personal favorites!) and Elciego (Valdelana, Riscal for the architecture), or those between Laguardia and Logroño to the east (C.V.N.E. Viña Real for the architecture).
Logroño offers more "nightlife" for those who don't enjoy sleepy little farm communities, and as Julie says, an excellent tourist board and great dining in all price ranges from the casual Tondeluna and Wine Fandango to Michelin stars. Wineries in Logroño aren't walkable (with 1 exception) as they are in Laguardia or Haro. The truly stunning, highly prestigious estate of Marqués de Murrieta, the prettiest of them all, sits outside of town, but one can take a taxi.
What we enjoy is going into Logroño at night to do a tapas/pintxos crawl in the old quarter in the "Laurel" area, with its side-by-side bars on the streets of Laurel, Travesía de Laurel, San Agustín and Albornoz) and those on the Calle de San Juan (Tastavin, Umm no solo Tapas). As Julie says, Laurel is the ultimate tapas crawl zone.
For local wine touring companies, the pioneer, Thabuca Tours, does an excellent job, both on their private tours and their small group ones, but they get booked up quickly. *I've also used a local guide, Jenny Siddall of Taste Rioja and a free lance guide, Celia Cardero at [email protected].
In addition to those that Robert mentions, the following two wineries in Haro do now have wine bars or shops, where one can sample without taking a tour:
C.V.N.E.
Rioja Alta
Muga (in the tower)
All of the wine bars/shops have differing opening hours so one should check on line.
One can order a glass of wine at the Zaha Hadid designed glass "decanter" of the venerable, century-old Bodegas López de Heredia-Viña Tondonia but commented tastings aren't given for walk-ins. Their superb, small group tour is now expensive but includes a bottle of wine.
A new and very comfortable 4-star hotel that's getting much praise is the Palacio de Tondón in tiny Briñas in the Rioja Alta, just north of Haro, with a noted restaurant run by alums of Michelin-starred Mugaritz. There's also the boutique Hospedería Los Parajes & Castillo El Collado in Laguardia and the "Flintstones stage set looking" Eguren Ugarte on the road between Laguardia & Páganos.
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