Wine Roads: Rioja & Ribera… (trip)
Wine Roads: Rioja & Ribera del Duero
- Culinary & Wine Travel
9 Days, from $4,520* per person. Year-round.
Accommodations: Boutique. Exertion level: 3 (7 is most strenuous)
Overview of Wine Roads: Rioja & Ribera del Duero
An insiders food and wine trip in northern Spain including the renowned
Rioja wine region, San Sebastián–Spain’s foremost culinary epicenter–a
morning at the Frank Gehry designed Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, a
visit to a beautiful Gothic village in the ancient kingdom of Navarra
and a night in Peñafiel in the heart of the Ribera del Duero wine
region.
The Wine Roads of Rioja and La Ribera del Duero is led by Gerry Dawes,
leading wine and gastronomy writer and recipient of Spain’s National
Gastronomy Award. The gastronomic focus of this journey is on
traditional Spanish cuisine with a few forays into Spain’s contemporary
and avant-garde cooking. Deluxe, multi-course gourmet meals will be
balanced by lighter fare and the occasional tapas tour, for which San
Sebastián and Logroño are famous. All wine accompanying the meals will
be chosen by Gerry Dawes. A culinary highlight of the trip will be the
dinner at Arzak, a Michelin 3-star restaurant outside of San Sebastián,
whose chef–Juan Mari Arzak–is widely considered to be a genius in the
kitchen.
All meals except for one lunch are included in the tour, as is the wine accompanying the meals. Hotels are 4-star historic buildings (convents and monasteries) in town and city centers. Transportation is in deluxe bus with professional driver.
The Rioja wine region is emerging as a capital of avant-garde winery architecture by innovative international architects like Canadian Frank Gehry, Spain’s Santiago Calatrava and English-Iraqi Zaha Hadid. Rioja’s modern architecture sits in stark contrast to the medieval landmarks from its rich history.
The entire region of Rioja has had a culture of wine, food and hospitality since the Middle Ages when monasteries offered all three things to pilgrims traveling the Camino de Santiago (the Way of Saint James), the famed medieval pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain.
Today, ancient monasteries, historic villages, rustic and innovative restaurants and futuristic architecture are interspersed among the scenic vineyards and classic bodegas of vibrant Rioja.
Operated by Epicurean Ways.
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Disclaimers
*Travel product and pricing information are the travel provider’s base estimates, published here as a convenience to TravelDragon users without verification by TravelDragon. Your actual price will vary depending upon length of trip, travel dates, number of traveling guests, transportation (e.g. airfare, rail passes, etc.), and optional service features such as room categories or individualized food requirements. This base price estimate may or may not include all necessary fees, taxes, government-imposed surcharges. Be sure to confirm availability, total price and trip details with the travel provider using the contact information provided here.
Max group size: 18
Special information
- This is a custom departure, meaning this trip is offered on dates that you arrange privately with the provider. Additionally, you need to form your own private group for this trip. The itinerary and price here is just a sample. Contact the provider for detailed pricing, minimum group size, and scheduling information. For most providers, the larger the group you are traveling with, the lower the per-person cost will be.
Itinerary
Madrid
Day 1 - Madrid
Check in to the Hotel de las Letras, a modern luxury hotel centrally
located on Madrid’s Gran Vía. In the late afternoon, we will visit the
Prado Museum or the Reina Sofia Museum to view Picasso’s Guernika
painted in homage to the Basque town of that name bombed in the Spanish
Civil War. We meet in the evening near the Spanish capital’s historic
Plaza Mayor for dinner–outstanding regional food and wine from the
local Madrid wine region.
Medieval Towns and Bodegas
Day 2 - Madrid - Santo Domingo de la Calzada - Haro
We leave Madrid in the morning and drive to Santo Domingo de la Calzada, a legendary town on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. We tour the cathedral where the famous chickens that are a part of the Camino legend are kept. We explore the town’s medieval streets before taking a short drive to a lovely town in the mountains of southern Rioja, and have a great traditional meal at the restaurant of one of the Rioja’s most revered cooks. We then walk through the kitchen and have dessert in a restaurant specializing in modern Spanish cuisine run by the chef’s son.
Just half an hour north of Santo Domingo is Haro, the capital of La Rioja Alta, one of Spain’s greatest wine subregions. We will stay for two nights at the 4 star Hotel Los Agustinos in a historic building dating from 1373 which has been at different times in its multi-century history a monastery, a jail and a hospital. We then visit wineries in the Barrio de la Estación, a remarkable place that is home to more than half a dozen centenarian wineries and one of the most evocative places to visit in the world of wine. We will visit a magical page-out-of-time bodega (winery) and taste their “wines of yesterday,” then cross the street and visit another top winery for a wine tasting.
Later we will take a short tour of Haro’s lively old quarter, peruse
some of the wine shops and hang out in the charming bustling town
square, sip a drink or a coffee at a sidewalk café and watch the
peregrinations of the jarreros, as the citizens of Haro are called.
After some down time to rest, we will gather for dinner with a
winemaker in a colorful upstairs restaurant and have roast suckling
lamb, Rioja specialties and decades-old bottles of wine from
prestigious Haro bodegas.
Riojan Cuisine
Day 3 - Haro - La Rioja Alta - Haro
Today
we will visit another bodega in the morning, see the stunning views
from the hilltop Rioja Alta towns of Briones and San Vicente de la
Sonsierra and visit a 12th-century Cistercian church that has special
significance for our host. We return to Haro where lunch is on your
own.
In the evening, in Briones, we will have an al fresco dinner of
Iberian ham, Riojan chorizo, Cameros cheese, baby lamb chops grilled
over grape vine cuttings and delicious local wines taken from vats down
in ancient caves carved into the cliffs above the Ebro River. After
dinner, we will return for drinks in a turn-of-the-19th-century café in
Haro, joined by a Riojan wine personality.
Frank Gehry and Marqués de Riscal
Day 4 - Haro - La Rioja Alavesa – Laguardia
What a fantastic day we have ahead of us! We will visit the picturesque villages of the Basque Country’s Rioja Alavesa. At the Marques de Riscal winery (founded in 1860), we tour their 150-year-old wine cellars and taste some great wines–including some very old ones.
We check into the superb Frank Gehry designed Marqués de Riscal 5 star hotel in Elciego, known as the City of Wine. We have lunch in the restaurant of this stunning hotel, which includes luxury spa facilities. The restaurant’s renowned chef is the same one who served us our avant-garde desserts near Santo Domingo de la Calzada two days earlier. After lunch you are free to schedule optional spa treatments and massages in the hotel’s spa, which offers wine therapy massages and treatments using products are made of grape extracts and mineral water.
In the late afternoon, when the nearby town of Laguardia is illuminated by the setting sun, we go to a point south of town where this magical walled town can be seen shining against its backdrop of the blue-gray Cantabrian mountains like the mythical Shangri-La. In the evening, we will have a quiet down-home Rioja meal in a nearby village. A starker contrast to our opulent hotel is hard to imagine.
Wine Cellars and Tapas
Day 5 - Elciego - Laguardia - Logroño
This
morning we will visit the capital of La Rioja Alavesa, the walled
medieval town of Laguardia, which we saw as that magical city on the
hill the evening before. Laguardia, a perfectly preserved medieval wine
town, is closed to vehicular traffic, which makes the picturesque
streets of this exceptionally charming Basque town a joy in which to
walk. We will stroll through Laguardia, have a short visit at a 14th
century church to see a magnificent portal that is one of the most
exceptional examples of religious art in northern Spain, and take in
the views from the ramparts.
Every house in Laguardia has a wine cellar carved into the living rock, where the families, many of them wine grape growers, made wine for their own consumption and often sold some to local wineries and bars. We will visit one of those subterranean bodegas and visit an unusual artisan family winery just outside the walls. We will taste some of Rioja’s best wines and have lunch at one of Spain’s greatest estate wineries, Contino, located nearby.
In late afternoon, we arrive in Logroño, the capital city of La
Rioja and check into our hotel in the center of town. After a brief
siesta, we will head for Calle Laurel and other back streets of the
colorful old quarter, which has one the best and most concentrated
collection of tapas bars in all of Spain. Each bar has a different
specialty– mushrooms, anchovies, grilled chorizo, patatas bravas, etc.–
all served with local Rioja wines. After our tapas tour, we will have
the option of stopping at a local nightspot for a nightcap.
Kingdom of Navarra
Day 6 - Logroño - Olite - San Sebastián
We
drive from La Rioja to Navarra, where we will visit to the castle town
of Olite, whose 15th century castillo built in the French style is one
of the most outstanding monuments in this historic province. Long
favored as a residence of the kings of Navarra, Olite is a charming gem
of a village featuring a wine museum and a small Jewish quarter. We
will visit a winery here and have an early lunch nearby at Túbal, one
of the best restaurants in Navarra.
We then head to the beautiful Basque seaside resort city of San
Sebastián (Donostia in Basque), known for its gastronomic clubs and
outstanding cuisine. We check into our hotel set on Monte Igueldo, a
hill overlooking the city. Later we visit the spectacular La Concha
beach, one of the world’s most civilized and elegant urban beaches.
That evening we go on a pintxos (tapas) tour in the Casco Viejo–the old
quarter known for its abundance of restaurants and tapas bars.
Three Star San Sebastian
Day 7 - San Sebastián
In
the morning, we will visit the farmer’s market and then take a short
ride to the wonderful one-street harbor village of Pasajes de San Juan
(Pasaia Donibane) where Victor Hugo once lived. We will have lunch at a
unique traditional restaurant looking out on the harbor. The afternoon
is free for shopping and exploring San Sebastian. Dinner will be with a
winemaker/winery owner at Arzak, the Michelin three-star restaurant
just outside San Sebastián, which many say is the best restaurant in
Spain!
Guggenheim Museum
Day 8 - San Sebastián - Bilbao - Peñafiel
We
drive to Bilbao and visit the landmark Guggenheim Museum, designed by
Frank Gehry. We have a fine steak luncheon in La Gabarra, a charmingly
rustic tavern serving superb meat, across the river from the
Guggenheim.
We drive to historic Peñafiel in the prestigious Ribera del Duero wine region, and check into the Hotel Convento las Claras, a 17th century convent turned luxury hotel. We will explore the spectacular castle town of Peñafiel and then have a tasting and roast baby lamb dinner at one of the Ribera del Duero’s most important wineries.
Farewell
Day 9 - Peñafiel - Madrid
Extend Your Stay in Madrid
If you wish to extend your stay in Madrid we offer tapas tours, exclusive dining experiences, customized historic Habsburg Madrid walking tours, private Prado and Reina Sofia museum tours, and excursions to Toledo and Segovia.
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