Diary of a Wino: Into La Rioja

Into La Rioja

Wine tourism has become a major part of my travel life over the last four years or so. Every year, I make it my business to visit another wine region—to immerse myself in the area, learn something new and discover the nuances that make each place different.

Sometimes I travel alone. Sometimes I bring friends along for the adventure.

And somewhere along the way, I discovered that I enjoy organising these journeys almost as much as I enjoy taking them. Finding the wineries, choosing the experiences, working out where to stay and creating a journey that allows you to really feel a wine region has become something I genuinely love—and something I increasingly want to share with friends and new people.

Back to Burgundy…and Then Somewhere New

This summer began with a return to Burgundy.

My first visit last summer had left me feeling that I wasn’t quite finished with it. There was still more I wanted to see, taste and understand, so I went back.

And it was wonderful.

I actually wrote about that first Burgundy experience in an earlier Diary of a Wino entry which, unfortunately, appears to have disappeared when my website crashed. Bugger.

One day I’ll sit down with a glass of Burgundy and rewrite it.

But this year’s journey didn’t end in France.

From Burgundy, we flew to Spain and I dove into an entirely new wine adventure: La Rioja.

This time, two of my closest friends came along.

And we had an absolutely fabulous time.

Into the Valley

Even arriving in Rioja felt like an experience.

Having just come from Burgundy, I noticed the contrast almost immediately as we drove south from Bilbao.

It felt as though we were driving deeper and deeper into a valley.

I hadn’t experienced that same sensation on the drive from Paris down to Burgundy. Here, the landscape appeared both wide and deep, mountains rising around us, enormous stretches of countryside opening ahead and vineyards becoming part of the scenery.

It was my first indication that this wine region was going to tell a completely different story.

Waking Up Among the Vines

For our stay, we chose a gorgeous villa on the vineyard property at Finca La Emperatriz.

And when I say we were among the vines, I mean among the vines.

Our villa sat right in the vineyard, with vines surrounding us and beautiful views in virtually every direction.

Waking up in that atmosphere was both calming and delightful. Before we had driven anywhere, booked a tour or tasted a wine, we were already in wine country.

It remains one of my favourite accommodation choices from the trip.

Rioja Did Not Disappoint

From its rich wine culture to its wonderfully fresh food and traditional dishes, Rioja very quickly felt like somewhere special.

And it reinforced something these wine journeys continue to teach me:

Wine and food should never be separated.

There is a completely different appreciation that comes from tasting a wine alongside the food of the place that produced it.

We visited historic wineries and gorgeous tasting rooms, walked through cellars, enjoyed tours and private lunches, tasted our way through different expressions of Rioja and spent time in Haro, where—much to my delight—there was also some rather good shopping.

Because even a wino needs a shopping break.

But the more wine regions I visit, the more I realise that what fascinates me isn’t simply what is being poured into my glass.

It is everything that happened before the bottle reached the table.

The land. The grapes. The harvest. The people. The decisions made in the winery. The barrels. The ageing. The waiting.

In Burgundy, I had been fascinated by how deeply the identity of a wine could be tied to a particular piece of land and the concept of terroir.

Rioja made me notice something different—the importance of time. Time in barrel. Time in bottle. The patience involved in allowing a wine to become what its maker intended.

Every region seems to teach me another part of the story.

And that, for me, is the real beauty of wine tourism.

Rioja From the Sky

Of course, we also managed to tick a rather large box on the list of incredible things to do.

We flew over Rioja in a hot-air balloon.

There is something extraordinary about seeing a wine region from above after spending days experiencing it from the ground.

Below us were vineyards, rivers, roads, villages and mountains—the landscape unfolding in every direction as the morning light moved across it.

It was epic.

There really isn’t a more sophisticated word required.

Epic.

And it gave us a perspective of Rioja that I don’t think any of us will ever forget.

The Best Part Was Sharing It

I can’t finish this entry without talking about what it meant to experience Rioja with people I love.

Wine travel can be wonderful alone—I know that firsthand—but there was something very special about sharing this particular journey with two of my closest friends.

We shared meals.

Walked through vineyards.

Drove through tiny villages.

Tasted wines and compared what we liked.

Learned together.

Laughed together.

Floated over Rioja together.

And somewhere in between all of those things, we created memories I know we’ll talk about for years to come.

That’s when I realised that these journeys aren’t really just about wine.

They’re about culture.

They’re about learning.

They’re about food.

They’re about place.

And they’re about friendship.

Wine simply gives us a wonderful way into all of it.

More Than What’s in the Bottle

Wine tourism has changed my relationship with wine because it has taught me to respect winemaking for what it truly is: a process.

A bottle arriving at the table is the final result of land, weather, agriculture, knowledge, judgement, tradition, time and people.

Once you’ve walked through the vineyard, stood beside the barrels, seen bottles quietly ageing in a cellar and spoken with the people whose lives revolve around making them, it becomes difficult to look at that bottle quite the same way again.

Perhaps that is why I keep travelling for wine.

Each region teaches me something the last one didn’t.

Each journey adds another piece to my understanding.

And every now and then, if I’m lucky, the people beside me become as much a part of the memory as the wine itself.

I am incredibly thankful for these experiences.

And as for Rioja?

I’ll certainly be back.

There is still far too much wine left for this wino to discover.

Salud. 🍷