Rioja - Bodega Lopez

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Rioja - Bodega Lopez

Rioja Vineyards

Rioja & Northern Spain

19 - 24 October 2009

This closely replicates our first Spanish tour in 1989. Then, as now we focus on the top wines of northern Spain and on visiting our favourite bodegas. We aim to show you the essence of this part of the real Spain, its rustic cuisine, austere villages and great hospitality. Tastings are awesome, tapas appear in waves and the meals are feasts!
Over the next couple of days we visit 3 estates of new wave ‘chateau style’ wines, Remelluri, in its stunning setting whose wines we have long been fans of, virtually define the elegant-forceful Rioja Alavesa style. Next is Sierra Cantabria; Marcos Eguren, co-owner, is rated by some as one of the world’s brilliant winemakers and certainly his perfumed wines impressed us last time we visited with their licorice/cocoa character and strong vein of minerality, the wines show a sensitivity and deep understanding of wine making.

To the south in the Rioja-Baja region we taste stunning wines over lunch at Baron de Ley. The wines perfectly match succulent roast lamb.

We accept an invitation to dine at the hospitable Marques de Caceres, pioneers of the ‘new style’ Rioja, who kindly open in the evening specially for A&C as a recognition of our long association. By contrast we visit the cob-webby cellars of Lopez de Heredia, guardians of tradition in Rioja. We also visit the Wine Museum of Dinistia Vivanco one of the two best wine museums that we know. The Vivanco wines are excellent now too. We stay in the Riojan wine capital Haro, in a converted convent. In Old Castille, we stop in Burgos, where we have time for lunch and to explore. Burgos was the capital of the Kingdom of Castille and its cathedral is the burial place of the hero ‘el Cid’.

Ribera del Duero is viewed as Spain’s new premier red wine region. The top wines are undoubtedly superb but there are many untested Bodegas and lots of young vines, so one has to pick carefully. Our first visit is to Jaros, the latest rising star here from whom we expect great things. Then, of course, Condado de Haza, where we are invited to dinner with Alejandro Fernandez’s stunning wines including the famous ‘Pesquera’. Just outside Ribera is Bodegas Mauro, one of the stars of the region, owned by Mariano Garcia former wine-maker of the famous Vega Sicilia. We continue to the nearby Rueda, famed for producing some of the best white wine in Spain from the local Verdejo variety. Here we sample the wines of Palacio de Bornos made by the Sanz family over another leisurely lunch.

This evening we stay in the dramatic fortress town of Segovia with its Roman aquaduct and Alcazar, the inspiration for Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle. Over the past 20 years, clients have rated it as one of our best tours.

It is possible to stay in Madrid before or after the tour, we are happy to book this for you, 2 nights in our 4*