ROVING LA RIOJA WINE REGION
Learn all about the gift of the grape on this quiet road trip through vine-studded countryside. Along the way you can visit wine museums and bodegas and admire stunning architecture.
TRIP HIGHLIGHTS
ESSENTIAL PHOTO
BEST FOR FOODIES
JOAN GIL / ALAMY ©
Roving La Rioja Wine Region
La Rioja is home to the best wines in Spain and on this short and sweet road trip along unhurried back roads you’ll enjoy gorgeous vine-striped countryside and asleep-at-noon villages of honey-coloured stone. But the real interest is reserved for food and drink: cutting-edge museums, bodega tours and some of the best tapas in Spain will make this drive an essential for any foodie.
1 Logroño
Small and low-key Logroño is the capital of La Rioja. The city doesn’t receive all that many tourists and there aren’t all that many things to see and do, but there is a monumentally good selection of tapas bars. In fact, Logroño is quickly gaining a culinary reputation to rival anywhere in Spain.
Based in the small village of Fuenmayor (10 minutes west of Logroño), Rioja Trek (
941 58 73 54; www.riojatrek.com; wine experience €28 per person) offers three-hour wine ‘experiences’ where you visit a vineyard and bodega and participate in the process of actually making wine yourself. It also offers family-friendly wine-related activities. For more on things to see and do in Logroño, see Click here.
The Drive » It’s only a short drive of 28km (25 minutes) from Logroño to Nájera along the N232, which transforms into the A12 motorway around the halfway point.
LINK YOUR TRIP
7 Northern Spain Pilgrimage
Drive alongside pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela. You can join ‘the Way’ in Logroño.
11 Along the Río Ebro
From Logroño you can join this tour and explore deserts and Islamic palaces, churches carved into rock and castles with hanging gardens.
2 Nájera
The main attraction of this otherwise unexciting town, which lies on the Camino de Santiago, is the Gothic Monasterio de Santa María la Real (admission €3; 
10am-1pm & 4-7pm Tue-Sat, 10am-12.30pm & 4-6pm Sun), in particular its fragile-looking, early-16th-century cloisters. The monastery was built in 1032, but was significantly rebuilt in the 15th-century.
The Drive » The dry landscapes around Nájera become greener and more rolling as you head southwest along the LR113 and LR205 for 18km (20 minutes) to San Millán de Cogolla. In the far distance mountains, which are snow-capped in winter, rise up.
3 San Millán de Cogolla
The hamlet of San Millán de Cogolla is home to two remarkable monasteries, which between them helped give birth to the Castilian (Spanish) language. On account of their linguistic heritage and artistic beauty, they have been recognised by Unesco as World Heritage sites.
The Monasterio de Yuso (941 37 30 49; www.monasteriodeyuso.org; adult/child €6/2; 10am-1.30pm & 4-6.30pm Tue-Sun) contains numerous treasures in its museum. You can only visit as part of a guided tour. Tours last 50 minutes and run every half-hour or so. In August it’s also open on Mondays.
A short distance away is the Monasterio de Suso (941 37 30 82; admission €4; 9.30am-1.30pm & 3.30-6.30pm Tue-Sun). It’s believed that in the 13th century a monk named Gonzalo de Berceo wrote the first Castilian words here. Again, it can only be visited on a guided tour. Tickets, which must be bought in advance, can be reserved by phone and can be picked up at the Monasterio de Yuso.
The Drive » It’s a 23km (20 minute) drive along the delightfully quiet LR204 to Santo Domingo de la Calzada. The scenery is a mix of vast sunburnt fields, red tinged soils, vineyards and patches of forest.
4 Santo Domingo de la Calzada
The small, walled old town of Santo Domingo is the kind of place where you can be certain that the baker knows all his customers by name and that everyone will turn up for María’s christening. Santiago-bound pilgrims have long been a part of the fabric of this town, and that tradition continues to this day, with most visitors being foot-weary pilgrims. All this helps to make Santo Domingo one of the most enjoyable places in La Rioja. The biggest attraction in town, aside from the very worthwhile pursuit of just strolling the streets and lounging in the main old-town plaza, is a visit to the cathedral. See Click here for more.
The Drive » The LR111 goes in an almost ruler-straight line across fields of crops and under a big sky to the workaday town of Haro (20km, 20 minutes).
5 Haro
Despite its fame in the wine world, there’s not much of a heady bouquet to Haro, the capital of La Rioja’s wine-producing region. But the town has a cheerful pace and the compact old quarter, leading off Plaza de la Paz, has some intriguing alleyways with bars and wine shops aplenty.
There are plenty of wine bodegas in the vicinity of the town, some of which are open to visitors (almost always with advance reservation). One of the more receptive to visitors is the Bodegas Muga (941 30 60 60; www.bodegasmuga.com; Barrio de la Estación; winery tour €10), which is just after the railway bridge on the way out of town. It gives daily guided tours (except Sunday) in Spanish, and tastings. Although technically you should book in advance in high season, you can often just turn up and latch on to the back of a tour.
The Drive » Briones is almost within walking distance of Haro. It’s just 9km away (10 minutes) along the N124.
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
TAPAS IN LOGROÑO
Make no mistake about it: Logroño is a foodie’s delight. There are a number of very good restaurants, and then there are the tapas (which here are sometimes called by their Basque name of pintxos). Few cities have such a dense concentration of excellent tapas bars. Most of the action takes place on Calle Laurel and Calle de San Juan. Tapas cost around €2 to €4, and most of the bars are open from about 8pm through to midnight, except on Mondays. The following are some of our favourites.
Torrecilla (Calle Laurel 15; pintxos from €2) OK, we’re going to stick our necks out here and say that this place serves the best pintxos in town. Go for the pyramid of jamón (cured ham) or the miniburgers (which come with mini bottles of ketchup!). In fact, what the heck, go for anything. It’s all good!
Bar Soriano (Travesía de Laurel 2; pintxos from €2) The smell of frying food will suck you into this bar, which has been serving up the same delicious mushroom tapa, topped with a shrimp, for more than 30 years.
La Taberna de Baco (Calle de San Agustín 10; pintxos from €2) This place has a cracking list of around 40 different pintxos, including bombitas (potatoes stuffed with mushrooms) and a delightful mess of toast with pate, apple, goat cheese and caramel.
La Fontana (Calle Laurel 16; pintxos from €2) Another stellar pintxo bar with a welcoming atmosphere. This one’s speciality is sepia fontana. And when you order this what emerges from the kitchen? A pile of egg, mushroom, aubergine and foie gras. The octopus isn’t bad either.
THE WEALTH OF THE GRAPE
La Rioja, and the surrounding areas of Navarra and the Basque province of Álava, is Spain’s best-regarded wine-producing region. La Rioja itself is further divided into three separate wine-producing areas: Rioja Alta, Rioja Baja and Rioja Alavesa. The principal grape of Rioja is the tempranillo. The first taste of a tempranillo is of leather and cherries and the wine lingers on the tongue.
The Riojans have had a long love affair with wine. There’s evidence that both the Phoenicians and the Celtiberians produced and drank wine here and the earliest written evidence of grape cultivation in La Rioja dates to 873. Today, some 250 million litres of wine bursts forth from the grapes of La Rioja annually. Almost all of this (around 85%) is red wine, though some quality whites and rosés are also produced. The Riojan love of wine is so great that in the town of Haro they even have a fiesta devoted to wine. It culminates with a messy ‘wine battle’ in which thousands of litres of wine gets chucked around, turning everyone’s clothes red in the process. This takes place on 29 June.
How to find a good bottle? Spanish wine is subject to a complicated system of classification, similar to the ones used in France and Italy. La Rioja is the only wine region in Spain classed as Denominación de Origen Calificada (DOC), the highest grade and a guarantee that any wine labelled as such was produced according to strict regional standards. The best wines are often marked with the designation ‘Crianza’ (aged for a year in an oak barrel), ‘Reserva’ (aged for two years, at least one of which is in an oak barrel) and ‘Gran Reserva’ (aged for two years in an oak barrel and three years in the bottle).
STOCKPHOTOASTUR / GETTY IMAGES ©
6 Briones
One man’s dream has put the small, obscenely quaint village of Briones firmly on the Spanish wine and tourism map. The sunset-gold village crawls gently up a hillside and offers commanding views over the surrounding vine-carpeted plains. It’s on these plains where you will find the fantastic Dinastía Vivanco (Museo de la Cultura del Vino; www.dinastiavivanco.com; adult/child €8/free; 11am-6pm Tue-Fri & Sun, 10am-8pm Sat Jul-Aug, shorter hours rest of year). Over several floors you will learn all about the history and culture of wine and the various processes that go into its production. All of this is done through interesting displays brought to life with computer technology. The treasures on display include Picasso-designed wine jugs; Roman and Byzantine mosaics; gold-draped, wine-inspired religious artifacts; and the world’s largest collection of corkscrews. At the end of the tour you can enjoy some wine tasting, and by booking in advance, you can join a tour of the winery (€20 including museum entry; in Spanish only).
The Drive » It’s 19km (25 minutes) along the N232 to Elciego. The scenery, which is made up of endless vineyards, will delight anyone who enjoys wide open spaces. In the distance are strange sheer-faced table-topped mountains.
7 Elciego
When the owner of the Bodegas Marqués de Riscal, in the village of Elciego, decided he wanted to create something special, he didn’t hold back. The result is the spectacular Frank Gehry–designed Hotel Marqués de Riscal. Costing around €85 million, the building is a flamboyant wave of multicoloured titanium sheets that stands in utter contrast to the village behind. It’s like a rainbow-flavoured Guggenheim museum (not surprisingly, perhaps, as that was also designed by Gehry). Casual visitors are not really welcome to look around the hotel, but there is an excellent wine shop and interesting wine tours (945 18 08 88; www.marquesderiscal.com; tour €11) take place – there’s at least one English-language tour a day.
The Drive » It’s only 15 minutes (9km) along the A3210 from Elciego to wonderful Laguardia, which rises up off the otherwise flat, vine-striped countryside.
TIM GRAHAM / GETTY IMAGES ©
WHY THIS IS A CLASSIC TRIP
STUART BUTLER, AUTHOR
How can anyone not love an area sloshing in wine?! Well, for me, wine is only a part of my love for this region. The light and huge skies is what draws me here. It’s so very different to the often grey and damp north coast where I live. It feels so, well, Spanish!
8 Laguardia
It’s easy to spin back the wheels of time in the medieval fortress town of Laguardia, or the ‘Guard of Navarra’ as it was once appropriately known, sitting proudly on its rocky hilltop. As well as memories of long-lost yesterdays, the town further entices visitors with its wine-producing present. Bodegas Palacio (945 60 01 51; www.bodegaspalacio.com; Carretera de Elciego; tour €5; tours 11am & 1pm Mon & Sat, 4.30pm Tue-Fri, 1.30pm Sun, closed afternoons Jul & Aug) is only 1km from Laguardia on the Elciego road; reservations are not essential but are a good idea (especially out of season). Also just outside Laguardia is the Centro Temático del Vino Villa Lucia (945 60 00 32; www.villa-lucia.com; Carretera de Logroño; museum €11; 11am-6.30pm Tue-Fri, 10.15am-6.30pm Sat, 11am-12.30pm Sun), a wine museum and shop. Museum visits are by guided tour only and finish with a 4D film and wine tasting.
54 Click here
The Drive » From Laguardia it’s a short 18km (20 minutes) down the A124 back to Logroño and the start of this tour.
HEMIS / ALAMY ©
DETOUR:
BODEGAS YSIOS
Start: 8 Laguardia
Just a couple of kilometres to the north of Laguardia is the Bodegas Ysios (941 27 99 00; www.ysios.com; Camino de la Hoya, Laguardia; per person €10; tours 10.30am, 1pm & 3pm Mon-Fri, 10.30am & 1pm Sat & Sun, advance booking required). Architecturally it’s one of the most gob-smacking bodegas in Spain. Designed by Santiago Calatrava as a ‘temple dedicated to wine’, it’s wavelike roof made of aluminium and cedar wood matches the flow of the rocky mountains behind it. Daily tours of the bodega are an excellent introduction to wine production.
CARLOS SANCHEZ PEREYRA / GETTY IMAGES ©
EATING & SLEEPING
Logroño 1
4 Hotel Marqués de Vallejo Design Hotel €€
(941 24 83 33; www.hotelmarquesdevallejo.com; Calle del Marqués de Vallejo 8; s/d from €50/75; 
) From the driftwood art to cow skins, beach pebbles and photographic flashlights it’s clear that a lot of thought and effort has gone into the design of this stylish, modern and very well-priced hotel.
Santo Domingo de la Calzada 4
4 Hostal R Pedro Hotel €
(941 34 11 60; www.hostalpedroprimero.es; Calle San Roque 9; s/d €48/59; ) This carefully renovated townhouse, which has terracotta-coloured rooms with wooden roof beams and entirely modern bathrooms, is a terrific deal.
4 Parador Santo Domingo Historic Hotel €€
(941 34 03 00; www.parador.es; Plaza del Santo 3; r from €105; ) The Parador Santo Domingo is the antithesis of the town’s general air of piety. Occupying a 12th-century former hospital, opposite the cathedral, this palatial hotel offers anything but a frugal medieval-like existence. The in-house restaurant is reliably good.
4 Parador Santo Domingo Bernado de Fresneda Hotel €€
(941 34 11 50; www.parador.es; Plaza de San Francisco 1; r from €90; ) Just on the edge of the old town is the Parador Santo Domingo Bernado de Fresneda, which occupies a former convent and pilgrim hostel, although quite honestly, with its divine beds and rooms that gush luxury, you probably wouldn’t describe it as a ‘hostel’ anymore.
Elciego 7
4 Hotel Marqués de Riscal Design Hotel €€€
(945 18 08 80; www.hotel-marquesderiscal.com; Calle Torrea 1; r from €310; ) When the owner of Elciego’s Bodegas Marqués de Riscal decided he wanted to create something special, he didn’t hold back. The result is the spectacular Frank Gehry–designed Hotel Marqués de Riscal. Costing around €85 million, the building is a wave of multicoloured titanium sheets that stand in utter contrast to the village behind.
Laguardia 8
5 Restaurante Amelibia Spanish €€
(945 62 12 07; www.restauranteamelibia.com; Barbacana 14; menú del día €17; 1-3.30pm Sun-Mon & Wed-Thu, 1-3.30pm & 9-10.30pm Fri & Sat) This classy restaurant is one of Laguardia’s highlights: stare out the windows at a view over the scorched plains and mountain ridges while dining on sublime traditional Spanish cuisine.
4 Posada Mayor de Migueloa Historic Hotel €€
(945 600 187; www.mayordemigueloa.com; Calle Mayor 20; s/d incl breakfast €99/105; ) For the ultimate in gracious La Rioja living, this old mansion-hotel with its rickety rooms full of polished wood is irresistible. The in-house restaurant (menus from €24), which is open to nonguests, is recommended and offers original twists on local cuisine. Under the hotel is a small wine bodega (guided visits for non-guests €5).
4 Castillo el Collado Historic Hotel €€€
(945 62 12 00; www.hotelcollado.com; Paseo el Collado 1; d €125-185; ) Like a whimsical Disney dream castle, this place, which from the outside is all sturdy turrets and pretty flower gardens, is a truly unique place to stay. The half-dozen rooms are all different but combine quirky style with luxury living. The open-to-all restaurant (menus from €25) is also excellent.