Wine tourism route through 23 Rioja Alavesa wineries
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Summer encourages you to go out, to breathe fresh air, to discover new places... And it awakens the senses, like taste! And if you want to savour it, there is nothing like a destination that 'combines' with precision landscape, rural beauty and good wines: Rioja Alavesa.
A visit to its twenty or so beautiful towns and villages is also a plunge into a Wine Route full of wineries of different types but united in the same spirit: to turn the fruit of a land rich in vineyards into 'liquid gold'. Here are 4 ways to taste it through 23 wineries. Cheers!
1. Avant-garde architecture
Designed by the prestigious architect Santiago Calatrava in 2001, the exterior of the Bodegas Ysios winery does not go unnoticed by those who pass near Laguardia, with an undulating structure reminiscent of the mountains of the Sierra de Toloño, which frames it. Very close by, in the same municipality, three others are also worth a visit. Viña Real, with the hallmark of the Bordeaux architect Philippe Mazières, produces the wines of this brand created by Cvne in 1920, using the most innovative methods.
Bodega Campillo, at the foot of the Sierra de Toloño, is an example of the integration of architecture in the vineyard, with a complex that rises up like a Bordeaux chateau. And Javier San Pedro Ortega is an innovative winery, with the fifth generation of a family with a great winemaking tradition. Bodega Lozano is located in Leza, combining tradition and innovation, with a stepped architecture designed by Jimena Ruiz de Landa that recalls the silhouette of the Sierra de Toloño and the carasoles. And in Samaniego, Baigorri, designed by Iñaki Aspiazu, surprises with its vertical development -on seven levels underground- of the entire winemaking process.
2. Singular wineries
There are two of them in Elciego. Murua has a social area with spacious lounges and personalised dining rooms, with antique furniture and an art collection. And Valdelana, three times awarded 'Best Art and Culture Winery', offers a winery-museum built over six underground ashlar stone cellars from the 15th and 16th centuries, two museums and a tasting chapel dating back to 1400.
In Laguardia, there are two others. Casa Primicia is the oldest building in the town, dating from the 15th century, and houses the first winery in the region, awarded the 'Best OF' in an international competition that rewards excellence. And Solar de Samaniego has reinterpreted its industrial architecture from the 1970s to become a Cathedral of Wine with its 'Beber Entre Líneas' project that fuses the cultures of wine and literature, also featuring two imposing murals by Australian artist Guido van Helten.
3. Centenary wineries
In Laguardia, Cosme Palacio was founded in 1894 and belongs to the group of Bodegas Históricas de la D.O.Ca Rioja. In Oyón, Faustino dates back to 1861, is the leading exporter of grand reserves and is considered one of the 25 most renowned wine brands. It is worth highlighting its artistic 'Art Collection' range, which reinterprets its most universal icon: Rembrandt's portrait of the Dutch merchant Nicolaes Van Bambeeck. And in Villabuena de Álava, Viñedos y Bodegas de la Marquesa Valserrano, founded in 1880, is a family winery that, through five generations, continues to maintain with purity the concept of 'vino de pago' (wine for a fee) guaranteeing the origin of the grapes from a very delimited geographical area, with a very specific climate and terrain.
4. Historic draughts
They are cellars in underground caves with constant humidity and temperature that are used for the winemaking process, ageing and ageing in barrels. In Laguardia, El Fabulista is located under the house where the fabulist Félix Mª Samaniego was born, a palace of the same name. Fabulous visits are organised with his stories, in his 15th century cellars. Mayor de Migueloa, under the old Palace of Viana, from the 17th century. And Carlos San Pedro Pérez de Viñaspre, in a 14th century cave used as a wine cellar since the 16th century, at a depth of 8 metres.
In Labastida, two good examples are González Teso, in a 14th century underground construction; and Tierra, also from the 14th century, a curious network of four caves under four houses and a backyard, in the Jewish quarter. In Lapuebla de Labarca, Loli Casado, a third-generation winery that combines old cellars with new buildings. In Oyón, Ondalán, whose brand value is "a winery that seeks to make the perfect wine (onda) with work (lan), the circular, complete wine; the round wine". In Samaniego there is Amaren, with a 16th century chisel-dug wine cellar. And Pascual Berganzo-Alútiz Vinos, with a 17th century cave. And in Villabuena de Álava, which makes village, site and plot wines, with vineyards spread over 300 of them in eight localities.
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