Vino Tinto - Laguardia, Rioja

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We zipped down from San Seb to a hotel that friends Ali and Geoff stayed at a few years ago,
Hotel Antigua Bodega Don Cosme Palacio y Hermanos.

They go in for long names in these parts. It is quite pleasant, but also reasonably remote.

On the way down we stopped in Pamplona. Perfectly nice town, but like nothing remarkable. The bull running course was less steep that I was expecting. Usual quota of banks and pharmacies. Not much else to say about it.

The Rioja region is not what I expected - altogether more rugged and bitty than the industrial-quantity wine-making concern I was expecting. In Rioja they make a quarter of a billion litres a year - a bit more than the whole of NZ did in 2006 (or to put it in a bit more context, about 3-4 times as much wine as NZ produced in 1998 - that's progress for you).

The nearest town (10 min walk) is Laguardia, which despite being small and on a hilltop is not short of bars. It had over a dozen open for business last night up and down a number of quiet alleys. Most had only about four customers, mostly old blokes whose drinks were poured automatically for them as they entered. But as the bars are all quite small it is still enough to make them feel occupied. Cheap rounds - a couple of glasses of wine for about a euro and a half.

A bit overcast today, so photos of the Rioja are not the best. The leaves are on the turn, and they kind of compensate for the lousy light. I didn't fiddle with the colour settings, honest.

Tomorrow we visit the Muga Bodega. They make some rather excellent wines - last night we hoovered down a Gran Reserva Prado Enea with dinner. Nice stuff. If the Bordelaise were making wine with Tempranillo, this is how it would turn out. Hardly marked up at all by the restaurant. Which could not be said for the rest of their offerings.

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Comments

[Helen]

Armchair travel while jetlagged
Just love the photos (text not bad either). Respectfully request some of HB's photos