Wine-ing We Will Go
Today marks the first of a couple days in Logrono. We have wine tours planned for both days. Today is wine tour day 1. We will be seeing a couple of smaller family wineries.
We start at Finca La Emperatriz located in the northwestern end of Rioja Alta at 570 m above sea level in one of the highest plateaus in the Rioja Alta.
The soil here is very rocky and dry, but because they are so high up it is also windy and cooler.
The vines reflect those weather conditions as they grow them in the bush style. A shorter more compact vine. Looking at them they resemble Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy.
The winery sits on a large piece of land with 21 different plots of grapes. Along with the vines, they also have a large wine making building, a wine shop and three old cabins that used to be used by the field workers so they could live where they worked.
This winery also has a beautiful area where one can sit outside, enjoy the view, the wine and the weather on nice days.
Before we get to do that though, we walk the fields and learn more about their vine growing techniques. They do have a nice presentation in the fields where you can stand in the bed of a truck to look down on the fields and read more about the soil and their wine making processes.
Our winery guide, Sandra did a very good job explaining the history of the winery and their wine making processes.
The history of the land and main home was very interesting. It was originally owned by a French Empress named Eugenia de Montijo, who was a woman ahead of her time. She entered her wine in the Universal Exposition of 1878 in Paris and won the contest
Now to enjoy the wine and the view!
We had a great table set up partly in the sun and partly in the shade which was perfect as the sun was warm that day. Along with our wine tastings we also had some very good meat and cheese to nibble on.
We had four different wines to taste. One white and three reds.
As we tried the wines, Sandra continued her education lesson on the making of the wine.
What winery is complete without a dog? This little guy followed us through the fields and sat with us outside while we ate and drank. Poor little thing had a bum hip that made him walk slightly at an angle. He loved to soak up some attention.
Ah, yes Selfie Time!
Jamie and Kelly like to give Duane and Tari crap about having to take selfies, but it is a nice tradition. Don't tell Duane and Tari, but Jamie and Kelly have started doing this too :)
Taking a selfie is an exact science....
Our Tour Driver, Robert, sat with us while we tasted and enjoyed the beautiful day. He was very outgoing and informational about the region. He also spoke very good English as he was originally from Dominican Republic and moved to Spain with his wife.
After enjoying our time at the vineyard it was time to move on to our next stop. But not before we purchase some wine to take with us and some wine to ship home. Wine shipping from Spain was more expensive than Italy, but the wine itself was WAY cheaper so it balanced out in the end.
This is Jamie's "Are you sure we needed to purchase a case?" face
Winery # 2 - Bohedal
This winery is family owned as well, but a much smaller production than Finca was. The winery is made up of a father, his two daughters and wife. Our tour was led by one of his daughters, Leyre.
This tour started out similar to your basic wine tour. She explained their bottling process and the rules/regulations of the Rioja DOC. From there the tour branched off from the norm. We took a deep dive into the wood used on barrels and also tasted from three different barrels to see the difference each wood type made to the wine. The barrels were American oak, Hungarian oak, and traditional French oak.
Nothing better than being double fisted during a barrel wine tasting
Once we went through our barrel tasting we decided to sit outside to do the tasting of the finished products. It was a beautiful sunny day, even if Leyre and Duane thought it was a little too warm to be in the sun. Tari and Kelly thoroughly appreciated the sun.
Educational Experiences
As the tour at Bohedal wrapped up we all agreed this was a very educational and enjoyable tour. It was nice to dive into other aspects of wine making than the typical topics of soil, blending, storing etc. Leyre was very knowledgeable in regards to the barrels and differences they bring to the grapes. You can tell in listening to her that she is very passionate on the topic. She reminded us all of our friend Karyn and her passion about dirt.
Leyre was also fun to talk about non wine stuff with. We found out that we were her last tour as she was moving to the States in a week as her husband's company was moving him to their office in Ann Arbor! Yep, THAT Ann Arbor. Needless to say Kelly was very exciting about hearing that. The group also helped her with her accent and and taught her the American way to say common places like La Guardia, Albuquerque, and Phoenix.
When the guys went inside to purchase our wine they also were able to talk Leyre into selling two of their family's celebration Cava. The bottles we got were from 1996! We had one that night on our patio and plan to drink the other one while in San Sebastian. The picture below shows how the bottle is stored.... we don't think that cage and cork will survive a plane ride anywhere.
Lunch Time!
After two winery tours, food was needed. As in typical Spanish fashion we ate lunch around 3 pm. Our lunch was a picnic created by Robert's wife Rebecca. We met her at a lovely park up on one of the hills where you can see all Rioja below you.
Rebecca brought some of her family wine in one of the typical canters you find in Spain. We all got a chance to drink from it and I am proud to say none of us spilled any on ourselves!
After enjoying our lunch and the park, we packed up and made the drive back to the house we were renting. The drive back took us through wine country one more time where we could see hill top villages, old Roman aqua ducts that were now used as bridges and of course vineyards. Reminded us all of our tours through Italy.
It has Been a Few Hours...so Let's Eat!
After touring all day, we hit the streets of Longrono to do the Tapas Run down Laurel Street. This spot in Longrono is known for it's Tapas and is popular with tourist and locals alike.
We had heard and read stories about how cheap the food and wine would be, but we were not expecting it to be true! Seriously! look at the wine menu from Tapas stop #2.
Yes! that says 1 or 2 euro for a glass! The most expensive glass is 4 euro! and these are not small glasses or small pours!
These are bottle prices..not per glass prices!
We made our first stop at the Tapas on the corner. The other nice thing about Tapas is that you can get your plate and glass then go stand outside and people watch while you eat.
Also at this first place you were not quite sure what Tapas options there were so you more or less pointed at something, they warmed it for you and handed it over. We did a couple plates of cheese, anchovies, and traditional dish of chorizo and egg.
The second stop was across the street from the first. We started off with the house white wine (1.50 euro per glass) and some peppers, mussels and tuna. Unfortunately I did not act fast enough on picture taking so the tuna and mussel dishes were gone before I had a chance to grab a pic.
The tapas and wine are bringing out the smiles
A large part of Tapas is seafood.. There is an abundance of seafood!
With all the Seafood, Jamie the crab eater was in his happy place
Ending on the funny aspects of the night
It might have been the wine, but for some reason the name of this bar was pretty funny. They also had Tari's spirit animal, the sloth sitting on a shelf.
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