Tasting in Rioja

Rioja Alavesa - La Guardia

Rioja

Rioja Marqués de Cáceres

Great Wines of Northern Spain

27 September - 4 October 2010

This great tour in the autumn of 2010 took in some of the great regions of Northern Spain: Ribera del Duero, Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa, Rioja Baja, Navarra, Campo de Borja and Calatayud.

From Madrid we drove north to the stellar wine region of Ribera del Duero, where we stayed in the village of Penafiel under the shadow of its Castle. We began our wine visits with dinner at the estate of Condada de Haza, which belongs to Alejandro Fernandez. Over dinner we will tasted wines from his four great wine estates including ‘Alenza’ and the famous ‘Pesquera’. Pesquera was the wine that heralded the revival and unstoppable rise of Ribera.

This morning we visited the stellar Aalto and Bodegas Mauro, set up by the former wine maker at Vega Sicilia, Mariano Garcia. These superb tastings set a high standard for the rest of the tour.

Abadia Retuerta, although situated just outside the Ribera del Duero region, is usually linked with the region due to its proximity. The cellar is simply one of the most ‘state of the art’ modern wine facilities in Europe and is based around the beautiful 12th century abbey, which has been stunningly renovated. We tasted the superbly crafted and extremely complex wines followed by dinner at the estate.

Moving north-east from Ribera del Duero we call in at Burgos which was once the capital of the Kingdom of Castille, it’s cathedral is a piece of gothic magnificence. Most of Burgos was closed due to a National stike but we enjoyed a meal of local specialities at a traditional ‘meson’ we know well.

Our journey then took us through some dramatic scenery until we arrived in Rioja. The wines of Rioja perfectly match the local cuisine especially the succulent oven roasted lamb. A particularly enjoyable meal was our lunch at Remelluri, the original chateau-style Rioja bodega, whose elegant wines virtually define the Rioja Alavesa style. We also had a privileged invitation to dinner at Marqués de Cáceres, the pioneers of the modern style Rioja. By contrast we visited arch-traditionalist Muga too.

We crossed into neighbouring Navarra (Navarre), where we visited our oldest friends in the region Julian Chivite, at their Senorio di Arinzano winery designed by Rafael Moneo. Here we tasted a wide range of wines, the traditional thunderous Reservas to more modern wines from their new vineyards and the benchmark Navarra Rosé. The Navarra D.O. is more flexible than Rioja’s allowing, for instance, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Cab and Merlot have been planted for a long time and produce powerful yet elegant red wines.

Before we headed towards Madrid, we explored the wines of the relatively unknown but definitely rising star regions of Campo de Borja and then Calatayud where we lunched with the leading firm Bodegas Jalon.
Our last night is at the spectacular hilltop Parador de Siguenza, a castle that dates back to the re-conquest.

This was a superb ‘Classic Wine Tour’, taking in so many of the great wine regions of Northern Spain and many of the country’s greatest wine.