Day 8 – Logroño & La Rioja Wine Region

June 26, 2019 – We decided to head over to the wineries…we ARE in the famous Rioja region you know… It was a beautiful drive to the vineyards with rolling hills covered in vineyards.  Wineries here are not like our experiences in Napa, Temecula, Valley de Guadalupe (Baja) or Chile.  You don’t just walk in for a tasting…you can’t even just walk in… you must have an appointment for tasting or a tour.  One of the best wineries is in Haro (which is like our Napa) and is called Bodego Muga.  They have a tasting bar.  We were greeted by a lovely lady named Maria who “habla ingles” luckily for us.  We were able to sample 5 of their fantastic wines – 1 white, 1 rose and 3 reds.  One of the reds was a delicious reserve wine.

As we were relaxing and tasting, there was an older woman out and about busy in the area to the side of the tasting bar.  As we ordered 5 tastings and came by and said, “Muey Bueno!”.  We were then having our picture taken and she commented (en espanol) that it was going to be a nice picture.  She was then introduced to us by Maria and she wanted to know where we were from.  She got excited when we told her we were American.  She told us, through Maria, that she had a house in America too and she wanted to show us a picture.  She left and went back into some back area and came back a few seconds later smirking with a framed 8 X 10 photo of her standing in front of the White House.  She thought it was hilarious and we were all laughing together.  Come to find out she is the 2^nd generation of the family who founded the cellars and grew up harvesting and winemaking here with her family.  She pointed to a black and white photo on the wall of her in the fields when she was 9 years old.  It has to be 60 to 70 years ago, but she wouldn’t tell us the date because then we would know how old she was now.  I guess that’s a big thing here, ha!!  She was very sweet and we took a picture with her.  We bought a couple of bottles of wine to enjoy on our travels, including their very limited production wine from their vineyard in which the vines will be 100 years old next year.  She said they produced very few grapes and the grapes are very small, but this makes for more concentrated juices and a higher percentage of skin area relative to larger grapes resulting in exceptional wine.  Can’t wait.

After the winery, we went into the little walled village of LaGuardia.  It is an adorable medieval city with stone buildings, colorful balconies, narrow lanes and cobbled streets.  We loved it.  We stopped in at a restaurant called El Bodegon.  It was getting close to siesta time, but this place was packed with what looked to be locals having Pinxtos and drinks.  We decided to stop in and have a snack.  We ended up going for a big lunch and the owner, Emilio, helped us to choose the local favorite items.   It eneded up being one of the best meals we have ever had.  We got 2 starters: Wayne tuna with red peppers and I got Riojan potatoes.  Wayne had lamb for his entrée and I had suckling pig.  For dessert, we had a Riojan custard (which had a yummy spiced crust) and pineapple mousse.  Both were delicious.  Our lunch included bread and a bottle of local red wine which was very good.  All of it was outstanding and we struck up a friendship with Emilio who treated us very well and spent extra time discussing and recommending some of the better wineries in the area.  He buys a lot of wine for his restaurant and really knew what he was talking about.

After lunch we had a wine tour and tasting scheduled at one of the area’s leading, and more interesting, wineries called Bodego Marques de Riscal. The first thing you notice about this winery is it looks like no other winery you have ever seen. Designed by Frank O. Gehry , one of the world’s leading architects and author, the modern building contrasts elegantly with the headquarters of the wineries designed in 1858 by architect Ricardo Bellsola. (Among other important work by Gehry include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao which we will visit later.)

The winery tour was interesting and informative….BUT we will ALWAYS remember this tour for something else.  You know how there is always that one annoying person…whether it is in class asking the teacher “wasn’t there supposed to be a test today?”   Or the one who has to be at the front of the line… Or the one who gets into your personal space…. Or the one who asks a question, but doesn’t have the patience to wait and really listen to your answer???? This person was on our tour today.  “Mr. Questions” would not leave our tour guide alone, poor thing, asking her a thousand irrelevant questions and them repeating her answers to her in the form of a question to which she would have to say, “Yes, that’s what I just said.”  After the tour, he somehow found and latched onto Wayne and wanted to be his best friend.  It was quite comical!  It was a good tour though and we loved the wines and bought a couple of bottles.

We didn’t have time for a siesta today so Wayne got to work straight away while I went out run a couple of errands.  I walked to the 3 beautiful local churches in Logrono the Co-Cathedral of Logrono, which has beautiful towers and artwork.  The second church I saw was Church of Saint Bartolome, which was very small and quaint.  The last church was St Mary de Palacio, which had a beautiful gold altar.  Next, I went to get us some bottled water, visit the ATM (where my cute new hat flew off and I had to chase it for a ways down the street) and a stop for gelato for our dinner…haha!

It was another great day.

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