If you know anything about Spanish wines, you probably know Rioja.  It’s one of the most famous wine regions of Spain, and part of it (Rioja Alavesa) is in the Basque Country.  So earlier this week, we set off with BasqueStages Athena and Tracy to explore the vineyards of the region. We were led by knowledgeable guides from San Sebastian Food, who make trips to all the bodegas in the area and hand-selected a very interesting trio for Tracy and Athena to sample.

The first stop was Bodegas Roda, a family-owned winery that produces an interesting line of wines. Their signature bottles are Roda and Roda I, with Roda I always tasting of black fruit and Roda exhibiting tastes of red fruit, like cherries. The interesting fact is that the number of bottles produced of each always varies because each year the grapes change according to the climate. Our guide told us about the microclimate of the region, and how she always drives the 15 minutes to work in cold, or clouds, or rain, but ends up in a sunny mild valley of Rioja. In Roda, Tracy and Athena also got to sample olive oils, which were also produced by the family.

The next stop was a markedly different winery, Bodegas Baigorri.  This modern winery appears to be a huge glass box cresting a hill in Rioja Alavesa, but it actually stretches seven floors below ground. According to the wishes of the original owners, the wine is produced using gravity.  This means that the process starts on the second floor (below ground) and between each step the grapes, juice, and other material flows to the next floor down. It’s an exercise in efficiency, and also helps avoid compromising the grapes as much as possible. This is important, because at Baigorri, the entire process is done by hand, not common at all among other wineries.

The final bodega was a departure from either of the first. Bodegas Carlos San Pedro is a small family winery located in Laguardia. The town’s ancient function as a military stronghold means there are caves hidden under the city, and Carlos San Pedro utilizes a cave for wine tanks and bottle storage. Grapes, as is typical in Rioja, are grown outside of the town and then carried in for crushing and processing. Carlos San Pedro Jr explained the process that a smaller winery uses for production, and even allowed Tracy and Athena to climb the old wooden ladders and peek into the fermentation tank before trying the product from the bottle and straight from the tanks. Que guay!

Tracy and Athena walked away a lot more knowledgeable about their Spanish wines, and convinced that some of the world’s best come from right here in Basque Country.