Muga

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Growing up in NZ in the 80s and 90s one gained little idea of the nature of Spanish food and culture. Sure, we all ate our share of tapas up at the Chase plaza (what was it called?) but perplexingly the tapas available here in Northern Spain bear no correlation to what was on offer in any of the tapas bars I frequented as a young(er) man.

In retrospect, I think this was possibly because of the scarcity of air dried hams and manchego cheese in downtown Auckland, as compared to nachos, cheddar, mince and sour cream. (Having said that, if any nachos came my way in the next few days, I'd order a portion immediately).

Anyway, the Spanish having got the hand of making Rioja, are now making good headway into the wine-related industry.

So they have tours, and sell wine-related bits and pieces. For example, at Bodegas Muga they use their barrels for 7 years (yes, sounds a long time, doesn't it). Then, they sell them as planters and al fresco coffee tables to tourists. The 4 resident coopers make 2000 new 225 litre barrels a year, and this year also had to make a couple of new 15,000 litre vats.

At Muga they fine their wines with egg whites (about 350 per 15,000 litre vat, in case you were wondering) and flog off the egg yolks.

But, things do not stop there. The Riojans built hugely ambitious tasting facilities designed by talented Spanish architects and vineyard restaurants and bars, and employ glamourous local girls to staff them. Who then talkrightupcloselikethis to the visitors.

Such obvious tactics are not in evidence at Bodegas Muga, though they did supply up a very charming young woman to show us and a Canadian couple around. It was a comprehensive tour, passing though the cooperage, de-stemming, crushing, fermentation, blending, aging, bottling, storage and labelling sections.

We were a bit late, having tried to park in the precise place where the front end loaders stopped to dump the grapes into the de-stemmers. Today is the last day that they are expecting fruit in. Some poor chaps were cleaning out one of the 10,000 litre fermentation vats used for the early-picked fruit. You don't forget the smell of all that CO2 quickly. A couple of guys were standing by in case the chap took a turn for the worse.

All very educational, and at the end we were offered a glass of crianza and a slice of bread and chorizo.

In the afternoon we went to visit the town of Burgos. The cathedral was closed for lunch (till 4pm!) and the castle was closed till next summer. Moral of the story, you still need to factor a big lunch and a nap into every day in Spain.

On the way back to Laguardia, we stopped into St Domingo, via a very bumpy and rather fun b-road. The cathedral there is noted for having live poultry inside on display to commemorate the occasion where a man was reprieved after his failed execution, and after the further sign that a local official's chicken dinner revived itself on his place.

Carelessness all round, I would say. Or else, that's what comes of not taking your field mushrooms to the Farmacia for positive identification.

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Photos

Racking
The wine is removed from every barrel every 5 months, the sediment is removed and the barrel refilled.