Tour of Rioja Wine Region: Part 1

The Rioja region is well within driving distance of Bilbao (less than two hours), so it's another great excursion if you have a bit more time in the region. My friend Tracy Chang from PAGU (who did a stint staging in the Basque region) highly recommended her friend Gabriella Ranelli from Tenedor Tours. We had a fabulous time. Gabriella has lived in Spain for 30 years and is very well connected with the food + wine circles. She's super knowledgeable, and took us to some great places.

First Stop: Ostatu Winery

We couldn't believe our good fortune. The grape harvest season had just become a few days before our arrival. Even our tour guide, Gabriella, hadn't seen them yet this season.

As we pulled up to Ostatu Winery we couldn't help but gasp, marveling at the operations that were happening right in front of our eyes.

The daughter of the family that owns the vineyard held out a bunch of grapes and said "tempranilllo from this morning . . . you want to try?"

I was surprised how sweet the grape was! Here's a video of me trying it.

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The harvest season in this region is really short, only 2-3 weeks. We felt so fortunate we happened to be here to witness this.

So amazing.

The Wine Tasting

Afterwards we sat down inside their winery and tried some wines.

This was paired with some cheese, charcuterie, and their own olive oil.

Driving Through Rioja

The rioja region is stunning and so, so vast and spacious.

There were so many times when I just wanted to point my camera out the window (during the drive) to capture the incredible scenery all around us.

Second Stop: District Station

Our next step was District Station (El Barrio de la Estación), an area where several really well known wineries (like Muga, Roda, Alta, Gomez Cruzado) are clustered together. It's a great way to taste a lot of Rioja's "greats" without traveling to far.

Roda

We stopped by Roda for a tasting of a couple of their wines.

We had chance to venture down into their cool and dark wine cave, sipping on wine via candle light.

Viña Tondonia

Our third stop was Viña Tondonia, right in the center of District Station. I loved the flask shaped building, modern architecture juxtaposed with the surrounding traditional stone buildings. The door to these buildings is typically closed, but we were lucky enough to see an open door the day we visited!