La Rioja!

---

I think I should change my major and enter the winery business. This weekend, 10 of us took a bus about an hour and a half south of Bilbao to visit Logrono and Haro in La Rioja, the famous wine region in Spain. I loved it. We checked into the CUTEST pension, or guesthouse, in Logrono Friday afternoon, and the owner, Lucia, went completely out of her way to make us feel at home, calling cab and bus companies for us, drawing us maps, asking us what we wanted for breakfast, stocking the fridge...it was amazing. We then all headed out to our first winery visit Friday evening, Vina Hermosa. It was a little smaller than most of the wineries in Haro because it is completely family owned and operated, but it was awesome to see. We had a private tour for our group, and again, the winery owner was one of the nicest people I've ever met. He gave us half off on our tour, free bottles of wine to take back and try, a free corkscrew with his winery logo on it, and even gave 3 of us a ride home after a short drive/tour of Haro since the cabs were so expensive. He dropped us off at a restaurant he recommended for dinner, and we had some traditional Rioja tapas, cheese and wine before heading back to our hotels for bed. The next morning, we jumped on a bus for Haro, the wine capital of La Rioja with something like 30 wineries in the town, and walked around for a while before our next appointment at Bodegas Ramon Bilbao (whose label you can buy in the States!). We again had a private tour for our big group, which was very cool, and this winery was much bigger than Friday night's, so it was interesting to see the differences in the wineries. We chatted with the lady who showed us around for the tour over a tasting of the Bodega's wines, and we bought some from the adjacent wine store - and she gave us all free t-shirts as a thank you for coming to visit. Seriously, everyone we encountered in La Rioja was sooo genuinely nice. It was wonderful. We took one of her recommendations for lunch in the town, and headed to a tapas bar called Epoca off the Plaza Mayor. She suggested this place for us since most of the wineries were closed or booked on this weekend without an appointment, and this bar had wines from every winery in Haro. So, we asked the manager to bring us a few bottles from the region for the large group of us and conducted our own tasting over tapas while everything else in Haro was closed for siesta. We walked around a little more after lunch, and while we were sitting waiting for stores to open again, we witnessed a hardcore fight between two young teenagers, complete with a knife and throwing of glass bottles and everything. A police squad was finally called in and rushed over and took one of the shouting boys away. It was a lot more excitement than any of us expected to see in this sleepy little wine town! We hopped back on a bus for Logrono soon afterwards, shopped and had dinner, and went to bed pretty early. Lazy, relaxing weekends can really tire you out!

---

Photos

Haro
Grape stomping statue

Winery
On the phone while pouring the wine

Comments

[anonymous]

dange elizabeth! i dont know if we have even seen that kind of battle in south central! haha i am so jealous of your excursions and i am sending out letters to all my abroad friends in the next week so get excited. also happy belated v-day! i discovered doughoys with my roommates last night and i think i found heaven. haha

[CoolKit]

Wow
Hi there, I am planning to be in Haro this april, can you add to this blog the details of the place you stayed and also how to contact the wineries to allow for bookings? Thanks